Digital assistant response framework

ABSTRACT

Systems and processes for operating an intelligent automated assistant are provided. For example, an electronic device can provide an output in an audio, visual, or mixed mode. In one example process, an output mode is selected, and, in response to determining that an output is to be provided to a user, an output data structure is obtained. The output data structure includes pattern components sorted into output groups. At least one pattern component from at least one output group is selected based on the output mode and provided in the output to the user.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No.63/346,633, entitled “DIGITAL ASSISTANT RESPONSE FRAMEWORK,” and filedMay 27, 2022, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD

This relates generally to intelligent automated assistants and, morespecifically, to an intelligent automated assistant that deliversoutputs formatted according to different output modes.

BACKGROUND

Intelligent automated assistants (or digital assistants) can provide abeneficial interface between human users and electronic devices. Suchassistants can allow users to interact with devices or systems usingnatural language in spoken and/or text forms. For example, a user canprovide a speech input containing a user request to a digital assistantoperating on an electronic device. The digital assistant can interpretthe user's intent from the speech input and operationalize the user'sintent into tasks. The tasks can then be performed by executing one ormore services of the electronic device, and a relevant output responsiveto the user request can be returned to the user.

An electronic device may provide an output to a user according tovarious output modes, for instance, displaying a visual output on adisplay and/or playing an audio output through a speaker or headphones.Being able to provide an output in multiple modes can create a moreflexible user experience, where the format of the output can be tailoredfor different situations, for instance, displaying textual informationon an electronic device placed in silent mode, or audibly conversingwith a user through vehicle interface while the user drives. However,electronic devices may produce many different outputs for many differentuse cases (e.g., domains) across many different platforms (e.g., amobile phone, a smart watch, a laptop, etc.), so tailoring every outputto accommodate a visual, audio, or mixed output can be labor-intensiveand inefficient, and can lead to a fragmented user experience, where theformat of an output varies significantly across different domains,modes, and platforms.

SUMMARY

Example methods are disclosed herein. An example method includes, at anelectronic device having one or more processors, selecting an outputmode; in accordance with a determination that an output is to beprovided by the electronic device, obtaining an output data structurefor the output, wherein the output data structure includes one or moreoutput groups, and wherein each output group includes one or morepattern components; selecting, based on the output mode, at least afirst pattern component from at least a first output group of the outputdata structure to include in the output; and providing the outputincluding at least the first pattern component of the output group.

Example non-transitory computer-readable media are disclosed herein. Anexample non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stores one ormore programs. The one or more programs comprise instructions, whichwhen executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, causethe electronic device to select an output mode; in accordance with adetermination that an output is to be provided by the electronic device,obtain an output data structure for the output, wherein the output datastructure includes one or more output groups, and wherein each outputgroup includes one or more pattern components; select, based on theoutput mode, at least a first pattern component from at least a firstoutput group of the output data structure to include in the output; andprovide the output including at least the first pattern component of theoutput group.

Example electronic devices are disclosed herein. An example electronicdevice comprises one or more processors; a memory; and one or moreprograms, where the one or more programs are stored in the memory andconfigured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or moreprograms including instructions for selecting an output mode; inaccordance with a determination that an output is to be provided by theelectronic device, obtaining an output data structure for the output,wherein the output data structure includes one or more output groups,and wherein each output group includes one or more pattern components;selecting, based on the output mode, at least a first pattern componentfrom at least a first output group of the output data structure toinclude in the output; and providing the output including at least thefirst pattern component of the output group.

An example electronic device comprises means for selecting an outputmode; in accordance with a determination that an output is to beprovided by the electronic device, obtaining an output data structurefor the output, wherein the output data structure includes one or moreoutput groups, and wherein each output group includes one or morepattern components; selecting, based on the output mode, at least afirst pattern component from at least a first output group of the outputdata structure to include in the output; and providing the outputincluding at least the first pattern component of the output group.

Delivering a formatted output, as described herein, provides anintuitive and efficient approach for enabling different output modes foran electronic device. Using domain-independent output data structures aspatterns provides an efficient way for information from a variety ofdomains to be formatted for output, without requiring each output domain(e.g., each possible task flow or function that may need to outputinformation) to define and store output formats for each possible outputmode (e.g., visual, audio, and mixed modes). Additionally, the outputdata structure improves the user experience by ensuring a moreconsistent, intuitive output format across different domains (e.g.,different content and use cases).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system and environment forimplementing a digital assistant, according to various examples.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating a portable multifunction deviceimplementing the client-side portion of a digital assistant, accordingto various examples.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components for eventhandling, according to various examples.

FIG. 3 illustrates a portable multifunction device implementing theclient-side portion of a digital assistant, according to variousexamples.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary multifunction device with adisplay and a touch-sensitive surface, according to various examples.

FIG. 5A illustrates an exemplary user interface for a menu ofapplications on a portable multifunction device, according to variousexamples.

FIG. 5B illustrates an exemplary user interface for a multifunctiondevice with a touch-sensitive surface that is separate from the display,according to various examples.

FIG. 6A illustrates a personal electronic device, according to variousexamples.

FIG. 6B is a block diagram illustrating a personal electronic device,according to various examples.

FIG. 7A is a block diagram illustrating a digital assistant system or aserver portion thereof, according to various examples.

FIG. 7B illustrates the functions of the digital assistant shown in FIG.7A, according to various examples.

FIG. 7C illustrates a portion of an ontology, according to variousexamples.

FIGS. 8A-8G illustrate systems for providing outputs to a user formattedbased on an output mode, according to various examples.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing outputs toa user formatted based on an output mode, according to various examples.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description of examples, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings in which are shown by way of illustration specificexamples that can be practiced. It is to be understood that otherexamples can be used and structural changes can be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the various examples.

An intelligent automated assistant may provide an output from anelectronic device formatted according to a selected output mode. Whenproviding an output, a content- and use case-agnostic output datastructure for the output is obtained. The output data structure includespattern components grouped into one or more output groups. Based on theoutput mode, different configurations of pattern components of thevarious output groups are selected to include in the output. The outputis then provided to a user, for example, after populating the selectedpattern components with the specific content of the output.

Although the following description uses terms “first,” “second,” etc. todescribe various elements, these elements should not be limited by theterms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element fromanother. For example, a first input could be termed a second input, and,similarly, a second input could be termed a first input, withoutdeparting from the scope of the various described examples. The firstinput and the second input are both inputs and, in some cases, areseparate and different inputs.

The terminology used in the description of the various describedexamples herein is for the purpose of describing particular examplesonly and is not intended to be limiting. As used in the description ofthe various described examples and the appended claims, the singularforms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms aswell, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will also beunderstood that the term “and/or” as used herein refers to andencompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of theassociated listed items. It will be further understood that the terms“includes,” “including,” “comprises,” and/or “comprising,” when used inthis specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers,steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude thepresence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps,operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

The term “if” may be construed to mean “when” or “upon” or “in responseto determining” or “in response to detecting,” depending on the context.Similarly, the phrase “if it is determined” or “if [a stated conditionor event] is detected” may be construed to mean “upon determining” or“in response to determining” or “upon detecting [the stated condition orevent]” or “in response to detecting [the stated condition or event],”depending on the context.

1. System and Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of system 100 according to variousexamples. In some examples, system 100 implements a digital assistant.The terms “digital assistant,” “virtual assistant,” “intelligentautomated assistant,” or “automatic digital assistant” refer to anyinformation processing system that interprets natural language input inspoken and/or textual form to infer user intent, and performs actionsbased on the inferred user intent. For example, to act on an inferreduser intent, the system performs one or more of the following:identifying a task flow with steps and parameters designed to accomplishthe inferred user intent, inputting specific requirements from theinferred user intent into the task flow; executing the task flow byinvoking programs, methods, services, APIs, or the like; and generatingoutput responses to the user in an audible (e.g., speech) and/or visualform.

Specifically, a digital assistant is capable of accepting a user requestat least partially in the form of a natural language command, request,statement, narrative, and/or inquiry. Typically, the user request seekseither an informational answer or performance of a task by the digitalassistant. A satisfactory response to the user request includes aprovision of the requested informational answer, a performance of therequested task, or a combination of the two. For example, a user asksthe digital assistant a question, such as “Where am I right now?” Basedon the user's current location, the digital assistant answers, “You arein Central Park near the west gate.” The user also requests theperformance of a task, for example, “Please invite my friends to mygirlfriend's birthday party next week.” In response, the digitalassistant can acknowledge the request by saying “Yes, right away,” andthen send a suitable calendar invite on behalf of the user to each ofthe user's friends listed in the user's electronic address book. Duringperformance of a requested task, the digital assistant sometimesinteracts with the user in a continuous dialogue involving multipleexchanges of information over an extended period of time. There arenumerous other ways of interacting with a digital assistant to requestinformation or performance of various tasks. In addition to providingverbal responses and taking programmed actions, the digital assistantalso provides responses in other visual or audio forms, e.g., as text,alerts, music, videos, animations, etc.

As shown in FIG. 1 , in some examples, a digital assistant isimplemented according to a client-server model. The digital assistantincludes client-side portion 102 (hereafter “DA client 102”) executed onuser device 104 and server-side portion 106 (hereafter “DA server 106”)executed on server system 108. DA client 102 communicates with DA server106 through one or more networks 110. DA client 102 provides client-sidefunctionalities such as user-facing input and output processing andcommunication with DA server 106. DA server 106 provides server-sidefunctionalities for any number of DA clients 102 each residing on arespective user device 104.

In some examples, DA server 106 includes client-facing I/O interface112, one or more processing modules 114, data and models 116, and I/Ointerface to external services 118. The client-facing I/O interface 112facilitates the client-facing input and output processing for DA server106. One or more processing modules 114 utilize data and models 116 toprocess speech input and determine the user's intent based on naturallanguage input. Further, one or more processing modules 114 perform taskexecution based on inferred user intent. In some examples, DA server 106communicates with external services 120 through network(s) 110 for taskcompletion or information acquisition. I/O interface to externalservices 118 facilitates such communications.

User device 104 can be any suitable electronic device. In some examples,user device 104 is a portable multifunctional device (e.g., device 200,described below with reference to FIG. 2A), a multifunctional device(e.g., device 400, described below with reference to FIG. 4 ), or apersonal electronic device (e.g., device 600, described below withreference to FIGS. 6A-6B). A portable multifunctional device is, forexample, a mobile telephone that also contains other functions, such asPDA and/or music player functions. Specific examples of portablemultifunction devices include the Apple Watch®, iPhone®, iPod Touch®,and iPad® devices from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California. Otherexamples of portable multifunction devices include, without limitation,earphones/headphones, speakers, and laptop or tablet computers. Further,in some examples, user device 104 is a non-portable multifunctionaldevice. In particular, user device 104 is a desktop computer, a gameconsole, a speaker, a television, or a television set-top box. In someexamples, user device 104 includes a touch-sensitive surface (e.g.,touch screen displays and/or touchpads). Further, user device 104optionally includes one or more other physical user-interface devices,such as a physical keyboard, a mouse, and/or a joystick. Variousexamples of electronic devices, such as multifunctional devices, aredescribed below in greater detail.

Examples of communication network(s) 110 include local area networks(LAN) and wide area networks (WAN), e.g., the Internet. Communicationnetwork(s) 110 is implemented using any known network protocol,including various wired or wireless protocols, such as, for example,Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), codedivision multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA),Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Wi-MAX, or anyother suitable communication protocol.

Server system 108 is implemented on one or more standalone dataprocessing apparatus or a distributed network of computers. In someexamples, server system 108 also employs various virtual devices and/orservices of third-party service providers (e.g., third-party cloudservice providers) to provide the underlying computing resources and/orinfrastructure resources of server system 108.

In some examples, user device 104 communicates with DA server 106 viasecond user device 122. Second user device 122 is similar or identicalto user device 104. For example, second user device 122 is similar todevices 200, 400, or 600 described below with reference to FIGS. 2A, 4,and 6A-6B. User device 104 is configured to communicatively couple tosecond user device 122 via a direct communication connection, such asBluetooth, NFC, BTLE, or the like, or via a wired or wireless network,such as a local Wi-Fi network. In some examples, second user device 122is configured to act as a proxy between user device 104 and DA server106. For example, DA client 102 of user device 104 is configured totransmit information (e.g., a user request received at user device 104)to DA server 106 via second user device 122. DA server 106 processes theinformation and returns relevant data (e.g., data content responsive tothe user request) to user device 104 via second user device 122.

In some examples, user device 104 is configured to communicateabbreviated requests for data to second user device 122 to reduce theamount of information transmitted from user device 104. Second userdevice 122 is configured to determine supplemental information to add tothe abbreviated request to generate a complete request to transmit to DAserver 106. This system architecture can advantageously allow userdevice 104 having limited communication capabilities and/or limitedbattery power (e.g., a watch or a similar compact electronic device) toaccess services provided by DA server 106 by using second user device122, having greater communication capabilities and/or battery power(e.g., a mobile phone, laptop computer, tablet computer, or the like),as a proxy to DA server 106. While only two user devices 104 and 122 areshown in FIG. 1 , it should be appreciated that system 100, in someexamples, includes any number and type of user devices configured inthis proxy configuration to communicate with DA server system 106.

Although the digital assistant shown in FIG. 1 includes both aclient-side portion (e.g., DA client 102) and a server-side portion(e.g., DA server 106), in some examples, the functions of a digitalassistant are implemented as a standalone application installed on auser device. In addition, the divisions of functionalities between theclient and server portions of the digital assistant can vary indifferent implementations. For instance, in some examples, the DA clientis a thin-client that provides only user-facing input and outputprocessing functions, and delegates all other functionalities of thedigital assistant to a backend server.

2. Electronic Devices

Attention is now directed toward embodiments of electronic devices forimplementing the client-side portion of a digital assistant. FIG. 2A isa block diagram illustrating portable multifunction device 200 withtouch-sensitive display system 212 in accordance with some embodiments.Touch-sensitive display 212 is sometimes called a “touch screen” forconvenience and is sometimes known as or called a “touch-sensitivedisplay system.” Device 200 includes memory 202 (which optionallyincludes one or more computer-readable storage mediums), memorycontroller 222, one or more processing units (CPUs) 220, peripheralsinterface 218, RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211,microphone 213, input/output (I/O) subsystem 206, other input controldevices 216, and external port 224. Device 200 optionally includes oneor more optical sensors 264. Device 200 optionally includes one or morecontact intensity sensors 265 for detecting intensity of contacts ondevice 200 (e.g., a touch-sensitive surface such as touch-sensitivedisplay system 212 of device 200). Device 200 optionally includes one ormore tactile output generators 267 for generating tactile outputs ondevice 200 (e.g., generating tactile outputs on a touch-sensitivesurface such as touch-sensitive display system 212 of device 200 ortouchpad 455 of device 400). These components optionally communicateover one or more communication buses or signal lines 203.

As used in the specification and claims, the term “intensity” of acontact on a touch-sensitive surface refers to the force or pressure(force per unit area) of a contact (e.g., a finger contact) on thetouch-sensitive surface, or to a substitute (proxy) for the force orpressure of a contact on the touch-sensitive surface. The intensity of acontact has a range of values that includes at least four distinctvalues and more typically includes hundreds of distinct values (e.g., atleast 256). Intensity of a contact is, optionally, determined (ormeasured) using various approaches and various sensors or combinationsof sensors. For example, one or more force sensors underneath oradjacent to the touch-sensitive surface are, optionally, used to measureforce at various points on the touch-sensitive surface. In someimplementations, force measurements from multiple force sensors arecombined (e.g., a weighted average) to determine an estimated force of acontact. Similarly, a pressure-sensitive tip of a stylus is, optionally,used to determine a pressure of the stylus on the touch-sensitivesurface. Alternatively, the size of the contact area detected on thetouch-sensitive surface and/or changes thereto, the capacitance of thetouch-sensitive surface proximate to the contact and/or changes thereto,and/or the resistance of the touch-sensitive surface proximate to thecontact and/or changes thereto are, optionally, used as a substitute forthe force or pressure of the contact on the touch-sensitive surface. Insome implementations, the substitute measurements for contact force orpressure are used directly to determine whether an intensity thresholdhas been exceeded (e.g., the intensity threshold is described in unitscorresponding to the substitute measurements). In some implementations,the substitute measurements for contact force or pressure are convertedto an estimated force or pressure, and the estimated force or pressureis used to determine whether an intensity threshold has been exceeded(e.g., the intensity threshold is a pressure threshold measured in unitsof pressure). Using the intensity of a contact as an attribute of a userinput allows for user access to additional device functionality that mayotherwise not be accessible by the user on a reduced-size device withlimited real estate for displaying affordances (e.g., on atouch-sensitive display) and/or receiving user input (e.g., via atouch-sensitive display, a touch-sensitive surface, or aphysical/mechanical control such as a knob or a button).

As used in the specification and claims, the term “tactile output”refers to physical displacement of a device relative to a previousposition of the device, physical displacement of a component (e.g., atouch-sensitive surface) of a device relative to another component(e.g., housing) of the device, or displacement of the component relativeto a center of mass of the device that will be detected by a user withthe user's sense of touch. For example, in situations where the deviceor the component of the device is in contact with a surface of a userthat is sensitive to touch (e.g., a finger, palm, or other part of auser's hand), the tactile output generated by the physical displacementwill be interpreted by the user as a tactile sensation corresponding toa perceived change in physical characteristics of the device or thecomponent of the device. For example, movement of a touch-sensitivesurface (e.g., a touch-sensitive display or trackpad) is, optionally,interpreted by the user as a “down click” or “up click” of a physicalactuator button. In some cases, a user will feel a tactile sensationsuch as an “down click” or “up click” even when there is no movement ofa physical actuator button associated with the touch-sensitive surfacethat is physically pressed (e.g., displaced) by the user's movements. Asanother example, movement of the touch-sensitive surface is, optionally,interpreted or sensed by the user as “roughness” of the touch-sensitivesurface, even when there is no change in smoothness of thetouch-sensitive surface. While such interpretations of touch by a userwill be subject to the individualized sensory perceptions of the user,there are many sensory perceptions of touch that are common to a largemajority of users. Thus, when a tactile output is described ascorresponding to a particular sensory perception of a user (e.g., an “upclick,” a “down click,” “roughness”), unless otherwise stated, thegenerated tactile output corresponds to physical displacement of thedevice or a component thereof that will generate the described sensoryperception for a typical (or average) user.

It should be appreciated that device 200 is only one example of aportable multifunction device, and that device 200 optionally has moreor fewer components than shown, optionally combines two or morecomponents, or optionally has a different configuration or arrangementof the components. The various components shown in FIG. 2A areimplemented in hardware, software, or a combination of both hardware andsoftware, including one or more signal processing and/orapplication-specific integrated circuits.

Memory 202 includes one or more computer-readable storage mediums. Thecomputer-readable storage mediums are, for example, tangible andnon-transitory. Memory 202 includes high-speed random access memory andalso includes non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic diskstorage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid-statememory devices. Memory controller 222 controls access to memory 202 byother components of device 200.

In some examples, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofmemory 202 is used to store instructions (e.g., for performing aspectsof processes described below) for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as acomputer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system thatcan fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system,apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. In other examples,the instructions (e.g., for performing aspects of the processesdescribed below) are stored on a non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium (not shown) of the server system 108 or are dividedbetween the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of memory202 and the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of serversystem 108.

Peripherals interface 218 is used to couple input and output peripheralsof the device to CPU 220 and memory 202. The one or more processors 220run or execute various software programs and/or sets of instructionsstored in memory 202 to perform various functions for device 200 and toprocess data. In some embodiments, peripherals interface 218, CPU 220,and memory controller 222 are implemented on a single chip, such as chip204. In some other embodiments, they are implemented on separate chips.

RF (radio frequency) circuitry 208 receives and sends RF signals, alsocalled electromagnetic signals. RF circuitry 208 converts electricalsignals to/from electromagnetic signals and communicates withcommunications networks and other communications devices via theelectromagnetic signals. RF circuitry 208 optionally includes well-knowncircuitry for performing these functions, including but not limited toan antenna system, an RF transceiver, one or more amplifiers, a tuner,one or more oscillators, a digital signal processor, a CODEC chipset, asubscriber identity module (SIM) card, memory, and so forth. RFcircuitry 208 optionally communicates with networks, such as theInternet, also referred to as the World Wide Web (WWW), an intranetand/or a wireless network, such as a cellular telephone network, awireless local area network (LAN) and/or a metropolitan area network(MAN), and other devices by wireless communication. The RF circuitry 208optionally includes well-known circuitry for detecting near fieldcommunication (NFC) fields, such as by a short-range communicationradio. The wireless communication optionally uses any of a plurality ofcommunications standards, protocols, and technologies, including but notlimited to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Enhanced DataGSM Environment (EDGE), high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA),high-speed uplink packet access (HSDPA), Evolution, Data-Only (EV-DO),HSPA, HSPA+, Dual-Cell HSPA (DC-HSPDA), long term evolution (LTE), nearfield communication (NFC), wideband code division multiple access(W-CDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multipleaccess (TDMA), Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE), Wireless Fidelity(Wi-Fi) (e.g., IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n,and/or IEEE 802.11ac), voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Wi-MAX, aprotocol for e mail (e.g., Internet message access protocol (IMAP)and/or post office protocol (POP)), instant messaging (e.g., extensiblemessaging and presence protocol (XMPP), Session Initiation Protocol forInstant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE), InstantMessaging and Presence Service (IMPS)), and/or Short Message Service(SMS), or any other suitable communication protocol, includingcommunication protocols not yet developed as of the filing date of thisdocument.

Audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, and microphone 213 provide an audiointerface between a user and device 200. Audio circuitry 210 receivesaudio data from peripherals interface 218, converts the audio data to anelectrical signal, and transmits the electrical signal to speaker 211.Speaker 211 converts the electrical signal to human-audible sound waves.Audio circuitry 210 also receives electrical signals converted bymicrophone 213 from sound waves. Audio circuitry 210 converts theelectrical signal to audio data and transmits the audio data toperipherals interface 218 for processing. Audio data are retrieved fromand/or transmitted to memory 202 and/or RF circuitry 208 by peripheralsinterface 218. In some embodiments, audio circuitry 210 also includes aheadset jack (e.g., 312, FIG. 3 ). The headset jack provides aninterface between audio circuitry 210 and removable audio input/outputperipherals, such as output-only headphones or a headset with bothoutput (e.g., a headphone for one or both ears) and input (e.g., amicrophone).

I/O subsystem 206 couples input/output peripherals on device 200, suchas touch screen 212 and other input control devices 216, to peripheralsinterface 218. I/O subsystem 206 optionally includes display controller256, optical sensor controller 258, intensity sensor controller 259,haptic feedback controller 261, and one or more input controllers 260for other input or control devices. The one or more input controllers260 receive/send electrical signals from/to other input control devices216. The other input control devices 216 optionally include physicalbuttons (e.g., push buttons, rocker buttons, etc.), dials, sliderswitches, joysticks, click wheels, and so forth. In some alternateembodiments, input controller(s) 260 are, optionally, coupled to any (ornone) of the following: a keyboard, an infrared port, a USB port, and apointer device such as a mouse. The one or more buttons (e.g., 308, FIG.3 ) optionally include an up/down button for volume control of speaker211 and/or microphone 213. The one or more buttons optionally include apush button (e.g., 306, FIG. 3 ).

A quick press of the push button disengages a lock of touch screen 212or begin a process that uses gestures on the touch screen to unlock thedevice, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/322,549,“Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image,” filedDec. 23, 2005, U.S. Pat. No. 7,657,849, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety. A longer press of the push button (e.g., 306)turns power to device 200 on or off. The user is able to customize afunctionality of one or more of the buttons. Touch screen 212 is used toimplement virtual or soft buttons and one or more soft keyboards.

Touch-sensitive display 212 provides an input interface and an outputinterface between the device and a user. Display controller 256 receivesand/or sends electrical signals from/to touch screen 212. Touch screen212 displays visual output to the user. The visual output includesgraphics, text, icons, video, and any combination thereof (collectivelytermed “graphics”). In some embodiments, some or all of the visualoutput correspond to user-interface objects.

Touch screen 212 has a touch-sensitive surface, sensor, or set ofsensors that accepts input from the user based on haptic and/or tactilecontact. Touch screen 212 and display controller 256 (along with anyassociated modules and/or sets of instructions in memory 202) detectcontact (and any movement or breaking of the contact) on touch screen212 and convert the detected contact into interaction withuser-interface objects (e.g., one or more soft keys, icons, web pages,or images) that are displayed on touch screen 212. In an exemplaryembodiment, a point of contact between touch screen 212 and the usercorresponds to a finger of the user.

Touch screen 212 uses LCD (liquid crystal display) technology, LPD(light emitting polymer display) technology, or LED (light emittingdiode) technology, although other display technologies may be used inother embodiments. Touch screen 212 and display controller 256 detectcontact and any movement or breaking thereof using any of a plurality oftouch sensing technologies now known or later developed, including butnot limited to capacitive, resistive, infrared, and surface acousticwave technologies, as well as other proximity sensor arrays or otherelements for determining one or more points of contact with touch screen212. In an exemplary embodiment, projected mutual capacitance sensingtechnology is used, such as that found in the iPhone® and iPod Touch®from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California.

A touch-sensitive display in some embodiments of touch screen 212 isanalogous to the multi-touch sensitive touchpads described in thefollowing U.S. Pat. No. 6,323,846 (Westerman et al.), U.S. Pat. No.6,570,557 (Westerman et al.), and/or U.S. Pat. No. 6,677,932(Westerman), and/or U.S. Patent Publication 2002/0015024A1, each ofwhich is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. However,touch screen 212 displays visual output from device 200, whereastouch-sensitive touchpads do not provide visual output.

A touch-sensitive display in some embodiments of touch screen 212 is asdescribed in the following applications: (1) U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/381,313, “Multipoint Touch Surface Controller,” filed May 2,2006; (2) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/840,862, “MultipointTouchscreen,” filed May 6, 2004; (3) U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/903,964, “Gestures For Touch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jul. 30,2004; (4) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/048,264, “Gestures ForTouch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jan. 31, 2005; (5) U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/038,590, “Mode-Based Graphical User InterfacesFor Touch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jan. 18, 2005; (6) U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/228,758, “Virtual Input Device Placement On ATouch Screen User Interface,” filed Sep. 16, 2005; (7) U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/228,700, “Operation Of A Computer With A TouchScreen Interface,” filed Sep. 16, 2005; (8) U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/228,737, “Activating Virtual Keys Of A Touch-Screen VirtualKeyboard,” filed Sep. 16, 2005; and (9) U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/367,749, “Multi-Functional Hand-Held Device,” filed Mar. 3, 2006. Allof these applications are incorporated by reference herein in theirentirety.

Touch screen 212 has, for example, a video resolution in excess of 100dpi. In some embodiments, the touch screen has a video resolution ofapproximately 160 dpi. The user makes contact with touch screen 212using any suitable object or appendage, such as a stylus, a finger, andso forth. In some embodiments, the user interface is designed to workprimarily with finger-based contacts and gestures, which can be lessprecise than stylus-based input due to the larger area of contact of afinger on the touch screen. In some embodiments, the device translatesthe rough finger-based input into a precise pointer/cursor position orcommand for performing the actions desired by the user.

In some embodiments, in addition to the touch screen, device 200includes a touchpad (not shown) for activating or deactivatingparticular functions. In some embodiments, the touchpad is atouch-sensitive area of the device that, unlike the touch screen, doesnot display visual output. The touchpad is a touch-sensitive surfacethat is separate from touch screen 212 or an extension of thetouch-sensitive surface formed by the touch screen.

Device 200 also includes power system 262 for powering the variouscomponents. Power system 262 includes a power management system, one ormore power sources (e.g., battery, alternating current (AC)), arecharging system, a power failure detection circuit, a power converteror inverter, a power status indicator (e.g., a light-emitting diode(LED)) and any other components associated with the generation,management and distribution of power in portable devices.

Device 200 also includes one or more optical sensors 264. FIG. 2A showsan optical sensor coupled to optical sensor controller 258 in I/Osubsystem 206. Optical sensor 264 includes charge-coupled device (CCD)or complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) phototransistors.Optical sensor 264 receives light from the environment, projectedthrough one or more lenses, and converts the light to data representingan image. In conjunction with imaging module 243 (also called a cameramodule), optical sensor 264 captures still images or video. In someembodiments, an optical sensor is located on the back of device 200,opposite touch screen display 212 on the front of the device so that thetouch screen display is used as a viewfinder for still and/or videoimage acquisition. In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located onthe front of the device so that the user's image is obtained for videoconferencing while the user views the other video conferenceparticipants on the touch screen display. In some embodiments, theposition of optical sensor 264 can be changed by the user (e.g., byrotating the lens and the sensor in the device housing) so that a singleoptical sensor 264 is used along with the touch screen display for bothvideo conferencing and still and/or video image acquisition.

Device 200 optionally also includes one or more contact intensitysensors 265. FIG. 2A shows a contact intensity sensor coupled tointensity sensor controller 259 in I/O subsystem 206. Contact intensitysensor 265 optionally includes one or more piezoresistive strain gauges,capacitive force sensors, electric force sensors, piezoelectric forcesensors, optical force sensors, capacitive touch-sensitive surfaces, orother intensity sensors (e.g., sensors used to measure the force (orpressure) of a contact on a touch-sensitive surface). Contact intensitysensor 265 receives contact intensity information (e.g., pressureinformation or a proxy for pressure information) from the environment.In some embodiments, at least one contact intensity sensor is collocatedwith, or proximate to, a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., touch-sensitivedisplay system 212). In some embodiments, at least one contact intensitysensor is located on the back of device 200, opposite touch screendisplay 212, which is located on the front of device 200.

Device 200 also includes one or more proximity sensors 266. FIG. 2Ashows proximity sensor 266 coupled to peripherals interface 218.Alternately, proximity sensor 266 is coupled to input controller 260 inI/O subsystem 206. Proximity sensor 266 is performed as described inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/241,839, “Proximity Detector InHandheld Device”; Ser. No. 11/240,788, “Proximity Detector In HandheldDevice”; Ser. No. 11/620,702, “Using Ambient Light Sensor To AugmentProximity Sensor Output”; Ser. No. 11/586,862, “Automated Response ToAnd Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices”; and Ser. No.11/638,251, “Methods And Systems For Automatic Configuration OfPeripherals,” which are hereby incorporated by reference in theirentirety. In some embodiments, the proximity sensor turns off anddisables touch screen 212 when the multifunction device is placed nearthe user's ear (e.g., when the user is making a phone call).

Device 200 optionally also includes one or more tactile outputgenerators 267. FIG. 2A shows a tactile output generator coupled tohaptic feedback controller 261 in I/O subsystem 206. Tactile outputgenerator 267 optionally includes one or more electroacoustic devicessuch as speakers or other audio components and/or electromechanicaldevices that convert energy into linear motion such as a motor,solenoid, electroactive polymer, piezoelectric actuator, electrostaticactuator, or other tactile output generating component (e.g., acomponent that converts electrical signals into tactile outputs on thedevice). Contact intensity sensor 265 receives tactile feedbackgeneration instructions from haptic feedback module 233 and generatestactile outputs on device 200 that are capable of being sensed by a userof device 200. In some embodiments, at least one tactile outputgenerator is collocated with, or proximate to, a touch-sensitive surface(e.g., touch-sensitive display system 212) and, optionally, generates atactile output by moving the touch-sensitive surface vertically (e.g.,in/out of a surface of device 200) or laterally (e.g., back and forth inthe same plane as a surface of device 200). In some embodiments, atleast one tactile output generator sensor is located on the back ofdevice 200, opposite touch screen display 212, which is located on thefront of device 200.

Device 200 also includes one or more accelerometers 268. FIG. 2A showsaccelerometer 268 coupled to peripherals interface 218. Alternately,accelerometer 268 is coupled to an input controller 260 in I/O subsystem206. Accelerometer 268 performs, for example, as described in U.S.Patent Publication No. 20050190059, “Acceleration-based Theft DetectionSystem for Portable Electronic Devices,” and U.S. Patent Publication No.20060017692, “Methods And Apparatuses For Operating A Portable DeviceBased On An Accelerometer,” both of which are incorporated by referenceherein in their entirety. In some embodiments, information is displayedon the touch screen display in a portrait view or a landscape view basedon an analysis of data received from the one or more accelerometers.Device 200 optionally includes, in addition to accelerometer(s) 268, amagnetometer (not shown) and a GPS (or GLONASS or other globalnavigation system) receiver (not shown) for obtaining informationconcerning the location and orientation (e.g., portrait or landscape) ofdevice 200.

In some embodiments, the software components stored in memory 202include operating system 226, communication module (or set ofinstructions) 228, contact/motion module (or set of instructions) 230,graphics module (or set of instructions) 232, text input module (or setof instructions) 234, Global Positioning System (GPS) module (or set ofinstructions) 235, Digital Assistant Client Module 229, and applications(or sets of instructions) 236. Further, memory 202 stores data andmodels, such as user data and models 231. Furthermore, in someembodiments, memory 202 (FIG. 2A) or 470 (FIG. 4 ) stores device/globalinternal state 257, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 4 . Device/global internalstate 257 includes one or more of: active application state, indicatingwhich applications, if any, are currently active; display state,indicating what applications, views or other information occupy variousregions of touch screen display 212; sensor state, including informationobtained from the device's various sensors and input control devices216; and location information concerning the device's location and/orattitude.

Operating system 226 (e.g., Darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, OS X, iOS,WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VxWorks) includesvarious software components and/or drivers for controlling and managinggeneral system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control,power management, etc.) and facilitates communication between varioushardware and software components.

Communication module 228 facilitates communication with other devicesover one or more external ports 224 and also includes various softwarecomponents for handling data received by RF circuitry 208 and/orexternal port 224. External port 224 (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB),FIREWIRE, etc.) is adapted for coupling directly to other devices orindirectly over a network (e.g., the Internet, wireless LAN, etc.). Insome embodiments, the external port is a multi-pin (e.g., 30-pin)connector that is the same as, or similar to and/or compatible with, the30-pin connector used on iPod® (trademark of Apple Inc.) devices.

Contact/motion module 230 optionally detects contact with touch screen212 (in conjunction with display controller 256) and othertouch-sensitive devices (e.g., a touchpad or physical click wheel).Contact/motion module 230 includes various software components forperforming various operations related to detection of contact, such asdetermining if contact has occurred (e.g., detecting a finger-downevent), determining an intensity of the contact (e.g., the force orpressure of the contact or a substitute for the force or pressure of thecontact), determining if there is movement of the contact and trackingthe movement across the touch-sensitive surface (e.g., detecting one ormore finger-dragging events), and determining if the contact has ceased(e.g., detecting a finger-up event or a break in contact).Contact/motion module 230 receives contact data from the touch-sensitivesurface. Determining movement of the point of contact, which isrepresented by a series of contact data, optionally includes determiningspeed (magnitude), velocity (magnitude and direction), and/or anacceleration (a change in magnitude and/or direction) of the point ofcontact. These operations are, optionally, applied to single contacts(e.g., one finger contacts) or to multiple simultaneous contacts (e.g.,“multitouch”/multiple finger contacts). In some embodiments,contact/motion module 230 and display controller 256 detect contact on atouchpad.

In some embodiments, contact/motion module 230 uses a set of one or moreintensity thresholds to determine whether an operation has beenperformed by a user (e.g., to determine whether a user has “clicked” onan icon). In some embodiments, at least a subset of the intensitythresholds are determined in accordance with software parameters (e.g.,the intensity thresholds are not determined by the activation thresholdsof particular physical actuators and can be adjusted without changingthe physical hardware of device 200). For example, a mouse “click”threshold of a trackpad or touch screen display can be set to any of alarge range of predefined threshold values without changing the trackpador touch screen display hardware. Additionally, in some implementations,a user of the device is provided with software settings for adjustingone or more of the set of intensity thresholds (e.g., by adjustingindividual intensity thresholds and/or by adjusting a plurality ofintensity thresholds at once with a system-level click “intensity”parameter).

Contact/motion module 230 optionally detects a gesture input by a user.Different gestures on the touch-sensitive surface have different contactpatterns (e.g., different motions, timings, and/or intensities ofdetected contacts). Thus, a gesture is, optionally, detected bydetecting a particular contact pattern. For example, detecting a fingertap gesture includes detecting a finger-down event followed by detectinga finger-up (liftoff) event at the same position (or substantially thesame position) as the finger-down event (e.g., at the position of anicon). As another example, detecting a finger swipe gesture on thetouch-sensitive surface includes detecting a finger-down event followedby detecting one or more finger-dragging events, and subsequentlyfollowed by detecting a finger-up (liftoff) event.

Graphics module 232 includes various known software components forrendering and displaying graphics on touch screen 212 or other display,including components for changing the visual impact (e.g., brightness,transparency, saturation, contrast, or other visual property) ofgraphics that are displayed. As used herein, the term “graphics”includes any object that can be displayed to a user, including, withoutlimitation, text, web pages, icons (such as user-interface objectsincluding soft keys), digital images, videos, animations, and the like.

In some embodiments, graphics module 232 stores data representinggraphics to be used. Each graphic is, optionally, assigned acorresponding code. Graphics module 232 receives, from applicationsetc., one or more codes specifying graphics to be displayed along with,if necessary, coordinate data and other graphic property data, and thengenerates screen image data to output to display controller 256.

Haptic feedback module 233 includes various software components forgenerating instructions used by tactile output generator(s) 267 toproduce tactile outputs at one or more locations on device 200 inresponse to user interactions with device 200.

Text input module 234, which is, in some examples, a component ofgraphics module 232, provides soft keyboards for entering text invarious applications (e.g., contacts 237, email 240, IM 241, browser247, and any other application that needs text input).

GPS module 235 determines the location of the device and provides thisinformation for use in various applications (e.g., to telephone 238 foruse in location-based dialing; to camera 243 as picture/video metadata;and to applications that provide location-based services such as weatherwidgets, local yellow page widgets, and map/navigation widgets).

Digital assistant client module 229 includes various client-side digitalassistant instructions to provide the client-side functionalities of thedigital assistant. For example, digital assistant client module 229 iscapable of accepting voice input (e.g., speech input), text input, touchinput, and/or gestural input through various user interfaces (e.g.,microphone 213, accelerometer(s) 268, touch-sensitive display system212, optical sensor(s) 264, other input control devices 216, etc.) ofportable multifunction device 200. Digital assistant client module 229is also capable of providing output in audio (e.g., speech output),visual, and/or tactile forms through various output interfaces (e.g.,speaker 211, touch-sensitive display system 212, tactile outputgenerator(s) 267, etc.) of portable multifunction device 200. Forexample, output is provided as voice, sound, alerts, text messages,menus, graphics, videos, animations, vibrations, and/or combinations oftwo or more of the above. During operation, digital assistant clientmodule 229 communicates with DA server 106 using RF circuitry 208.

User data and models 231 include various data associated with the user(e.g., user-specific vocabulary data, user preference data,user-specified name pronunciations, data from the user's electronicaddress book, to-do lists, shopping lists, etc.) to provide theclient-side functionalities of the digital assistant. Further, user dataand models 231 include various models (e.g., speech recognition models,statistical language models, natural language processing models,ontology, task flow models, service models, etc.) for processing userinput and determining user intent.

In some examples, digital assistant client module 229 utilizes thevarious sensors, subsystems, and peripheral devices of portablemultifunction device 200 to gather additional information from thesurrounding environment of the portable multifunction device 200 toestablish a context associated with a user, the current userinteraction, and/or the current user input. In some examples, digitalassistant client module 229 provides the contextual information or asubset thereof with the user input to DA server 106 to help infer theuser's intent. In some examples, the digital assistant also uses thecontextual information to determine how to prepare and deliver outputsto the user. Contextual information is referred to as context data.

In some examples, the contextual information that accompanies the userinput includes sensor information, e.g., lighting, ambient noise,ambient temperature, images or videos of the surrounding environment,etc. In some examples, the contextual information can also include thephysical state of the device, e.g., device orientation, device location,device temperature, power level, speed, acceleration, motion patterns,cellular signals strength, etc. In some examples, information related tothe software state of DA server 106, e.g., running processes, installedprograms, past and present network activities, background services,error logs, resources usage, etc., and of portable multifunction device200 is provided to DA server 106 as contextual information associatedwith a user input.

In some examples, the digital assistant client module 229 selectivelyprovides information (e.g., user data 231) stored on the portablemultifunction device 200 in response to requests from DA server 106. Insome examples, digital assistant client module 229 also elicitsadditional input from the user via a natural language dialogue or otheruser interfaces upon request by DA server 106. Digital assistant clientmodule 229 passes the additional input to DA server 106 to help DAserver 106 in intent deduction and/or fulfillment of the user's intentexpressed in the user request.

A more detailed description of a digital assistant is described belowwith reference to FIGS. 7A-7C. It should be recognized that digitalassistant client module 229 can include any number of the sub-modules ofdigital assistant module 726 described below.

Applications 236 include the following modules (or sets ofinstructions), or a subset or superset thereof:

-   -   Contacts module 237 (sometimes called an address book or contact        list);    -   Telephone module 238;    -   Video conference module 239;    -   E-mail client module 240;    -   Instant messaging (IM) module 241;    -   Workout support module 242;    -   Camera module 243 for still and/or video images;    -   Image management module 244;    -   Video player module;    -   Music player module;    -   Browser module 247;    -   Calendar module 248;    -   Widget modules 249, which includes, in some examples, one or        more of: weather widget 249-1, stocks widget 249-2, calculator        widget 249-3, alarm clock widget 249-4, dictionary widget 249-5,        and other widgets obtained by the user, as well as user-created        widgets 249-6;    -   Widget creator module 250 for making user-created widgets 249-6;    -   Search module 251;    -   Video and music player module 252, which merges video player        module and music player module;    -   Notes module 253;    -   Map module 254; and/or    -   Online video module 255.

Examples of other applications 236 that are stored in memory 202 includeother word processing applications, other image editing applications,drawing applications, presentation applications, JAVA-enabledapplications, encryption, digital rights management, voice recognition,and voice replication.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module234, contacts module 237 are used to manage an address book or contactlist (e.g., stored in application internal state 292 of contacts module237 in memory 202 or memory 470), including: adding name(s) to theaddress book; deleting name(s) from the address book; associatingtelephone number(s), e-mail address(es), physical address(es) or otherinformation with a name; associating an image with a name; categorizingand sorting names; providing telephone numbers or e-mail addresses toinitiate and/or facilitate communications by telephone 238, videoconference module 239, e-mail 240, or IM 241; and so forth.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211,microphone 213, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motionmodule 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, telephonemodule 238 are used to enter a sequence of characters corresponding to atelephone number, access one or more telephone numbers in contactsmodule 237, modify a telephone number that has been entered, dial arespective telephone number, conduct a conversation, and disconnect orhang up when the conversation is completed. As noted above, the wirelesscommunication uses any of a plurality of communications standards,protocols, and technologies.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211,microphone 213, touch screen 212, display controller 256, optical sensor264, optical sensor controller 258, contact/motion module 230, graphicsmodule 232, text input module 234, contacts module 237, and telephonemodule 238, video conference module 239 includes executable instructionsto initiate, conduct, and terminate a video conference between a userand one or more other participants in accordance with user instructions.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and textinput module 234, e-mail client module 240 includes executableinstructions to create, send, receive, and manage e-mail in response touser instructions. In conjunction with image management module 244,e-mail client module 240 makes it very easy to create and send e-mailswith still or video images taken with camera module 243.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and textinput module 234, the instant messaging module 241 includes executableinstructions to enter a sequence of characters corresponding to aninstant message, to modify previously entered characters, to transmit arespective instant message (for example, using a Short Message Service(SMS) or Multimedia Message Service (MMS) protocol for telephony-basedinstant messages or using XMPP, SIMPLE, or IMPS for Internet-basedinstant messages), to receive instant messages, and to view receivedinstant messages. In some embodiments, transmitted and/or receivedinstant messages include graphics, photos, audio files, video filesand/or other attachments as are supported in an MMS and/or an EnhancedMessaging Service (EMS). As used herein, “instant messaging” refers toboth telephony-based messages (e.g., messages sent using SMS or MMS) andInternet-based messages (e.g., messages sent using XMPP, SIMPLE, orIMPS).

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, textinput module 234, GPS module 235, map module 254, and music playermodule, workout support module 242 includes executable instructions tocreate workouts (e.g., with time, distance, and/or calorie burninggoals); communicate with workout sensors (sports devices); receiveworkout sensor data; calibrate sensors used to monitor a workout; selectand play music for a workout; and display, store, and transmit workoutdata.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, opticalsensor(s) 264, optical sensor controller 258, contact/motion module 230,graphics module 232, and image management module 244, camera module 243includes executable instructions to capture still images or video(including a video stream) and store them into memory 202, modifycharacteristics of a still image or video, or delete a still image orvideo from memory 202.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234,and camera module 243, image management module 244 includes executableinstructions to arrange, modify (e.g., edit), or otherwise manipulate,label, delete, present (e.g., in a digital slide show or album), andstore still and/or video images.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and textinput module 234, browser module 247 includes executable instructions tobrowse the Internet in accordance with user instructions, includingsearching, linking to, receiving, and displaying web pages or portionsthereof, as well as attachments and other files linked to web pages.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, textinput module 234, e-mail client module 240, and browser module 247,calendar module 248 includes executable instructions to create, display,modify, and store calendars and data associated with calendars (e.g.,calendar entries, to-do lists, etc.) in accordance with userinstructions.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, textinput module 234, and browser module 247, widget modules 249 aremini-applications that can be downloaded and used by a user (e.g.,weather widget 249-1, stocks widget 249-2, calculator widget 249-3,alarm clock widget 249-4, and dictionary widget 249-5) or created by theuser (e.g., user-created widget 249-6). In some embodiments, a widgetincludes an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) file, a CSS (CascadingStyle Sheets) file, and a JavaScript file. In some embodiments, a widgetincludes an XML (Extensible Markup Language) file and a JavaScript file(e.g., Yahoo! Widgets).

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, textinput module 234, and browser module 247, the widget creator module 250are used by a user to create widgets (e.g., turning a user-specifiedportion of a web page into a widget).

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module234, search module 251 includes executable instructions to search fortext, music, sound, image, video, and/or other files in memory 202 thatmatch one or more search criteria (e.g., one or more user-specifiedsearch terms) in accordance with user instructions.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, audio circuitry 210,speaker 211, RF circuitry 208, and browser module 247, video and musicplayer module 252 includes executable instructions that allow the userto download and play back recorded music and other sound files stored inone or more file formats, such as MP3 or AAC files, and executableinstructions to display, present, or otherwise play back videos (e.g.,on touch screen 212 or on an external, connected display via externalport 224). In some embodiments, device 200 optionally includes thefunctionality of an MP3 player, such as an iPod (trademark of AppleInc.).

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module234, notes module 253 includes executable instructions to create andmanage notes, to-do lists, and the like in accordance with userinstructions.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, textinput module 234, GPS module 235, and browser module 247, map module 254are used to receive, display, modify, and store maps and data associatedwith maps (e.g., driving directions, data on stores and other points ofinterest at or near a particular location, and other location-baseddata) in accordance with user instructions.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, audio circuitry 210,speaker 211, RF circuitry 208, text input module 234, e-mail clientmodule 240, and browser module 247, online video module 255 includesinstructions that allow the user to access, browse, receive (e.g., bystreaming and/or download), play back (e.g., on the touch screen or onan external, connected display via external port 224), send an e-mailwith a link to a particular online video, and otherwise manage onlinevideos in one or more file formats, such as H.264. In some embodiments,instant messaging module 241, rather than e-mail client module 240, isused to send a link to a particular online video. Additional descriptionof the online video application can be found in U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 60/936,562, “Portable Multifunction Device, Method, andGraphical User Interface for Playing Online Videos,” filed Jun. 20,2007, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/968,067, “PortableMultifunction Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for PlayingOnline Videos,” filed Dec. 31, 2007, the contents of which are herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety.

Each of the above-identified modules and applications corresponds to aset of executable instructions for performing one or more functionsdescribed above and the methods described in this application (e.g., thecomputer-implemented methods and other information processing methodsdescribed herein). These modules (e.g., sets of instructions) need notbe implemented as separate software programs, procedures, or modules,and thus various subsets of these modules can be combined or otherwiserearranged in various embodiments. For example, video player module canbe combined with music player module into a single module (e.g., videoand music player module 252, FIG. 2A). In some embodiments, memory 202stores a subset of the modules and data structures identified above.Furthermore, memory 202 stores additional modules and data structuresnot described above.

In some embodiments, device 200 is a device where operation of apredefined set of functions on the device is performed exclusivelythrough a touch screen and/or a touchpad. By using a touch screen and/ora touchpad as the primary input control device for operation of device200, the number of physical input control devices (such as push buttons,dials, and the like) on device 200 is reduced.

The predefined set of functions that are performed exclusively through atouch screen and/or a touchpad optionally include navigation betweenuser interfaces. In some embodiments, the touchpad, when touched by theuser, navigates device 200 to a main, home, or root menu from any userinterface that is displayed on device 200. In such embodiments, a “menubutton” is implemented using a touchpad. In some other embodiments, themenu button is a physical push button or other physical input controldevice instead of a touchpad.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components for eventhandling in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments,memory 202 (FIG. 2A) or 470 (FIG. 4 ) includes event sorter 270 (e.g.,in operating system 226) and a respective application 236-1 (e.g., anyof the aforementioned applications 237-251, 255, 480-490).

Event sorter 270 receives event information and determines theapplication 236-1 and application view 291 of application 236-1 to whichto deliver the event information. Event sorter 270 includes eventmonitor 271 and event dispatcher module 274. In some embodiments,application 236-1 includes application internal state 292, whichindicates the current application view(s) displayed on touch-sensitivedisplay 212 when the application is active or executing. In someembodiments, device/global internal state 257 is used by event sorter270 to determine which application(s) is (are) currently active, andapplication internal state 292 is used by event sorter 270 to determineapplication views 291 to which to deliver event information.

In some embodiments, application internal state 292 includes additionalinformation, such as one or more of: resume information to be used whenapplication 236-1 resumes execution, user interface state informationthat indicates information being displayed or that is ready for displayby application 236-1, a state queue for enabling the user to go back toa prior state or view of application 236-1, and a redo/undo queue ofprevious actions taken by the user.

Event monitor 271 receives event information from peripherals interface218. Event information includes information about a sub-event (e.g., auser touch on touch-sensitive display 212, as part of a multi-touchgesture). Peripherals interface 218 transmits information it receivesfrom I/O subsystem 206 or a sensor, such as proximity sensor 266,accelerometer(s) 268, and/or microphone 213 (through audio circuitry210). Information that peripherals interface 218 receives from I/Osubsystem 206 includes information from touch-sensitive display 212 or atouch-sensitive surface.

In some embodiments, event monitor 271 sends requests to the peripheralsinterface 218 at predetermined intervals. In response, peripheralsinterface 218 transmits event information. In other embodiments,peripherals interface 218 transmits event information only when there isa significant event (e.g., receiving an input above a predeterminednoise threshold and/or for more than a predetermined duration).

In some embodiments, event sorter 270 also includes a hit viewdetermination module 272 and/or an active event recognizer determinationmodule 273.

Hit view determination module 272 provides software procedures fordetermining where a sub-event has taken place within one or more viewswhen touch-sensitive display 212 displays more than one view. Views aremade up of controls and other elements that a user can see on thedisplay.

Another aspect of the user interface associated with an application is aset of views, sometimes herein called application views or userinterface windows, in which information is displayed and touch-basedgestures occur. The application views (of a respective application) inwhich a touch is detected correspond to programmatic levels within aprogrammatic or view hierarchy of the application. For example, thelowest level view in which a touch is detected is called the hit view,and the set of events that are recognized as proper inputs is determinedbased, at least in part, on the hit view of the initial touch thatbegins a touch-based gesture.

Hit view determination module 272 receives information related to subevents of a touch-based gesture. When an application has multiple viewsorganized in a hierarchy, hit view determination module 272 identifies ahit view as the lowest view in the hierarchy which should handle thesub-event. In most circumstances, the hit view is the lowest level viewin which an initiating sub-event occurs (e.g., the first sub-event inthe sequence of sub-events that form an event or potential event). Oncethe hit view is identified by the hit view determination module 272, thehit view typically receives all sub-events related to the same touch orinput source for which it was identified as the hit view.

Active event recognizer determination module 273 determines which viewor views within a view hierarchy should receive a particular sequence ofsub-events. In some embodiments, active event recognizer determinationmodule 273 determines that only the hit view should receive a particularsequence of sub-events. In other embodiments, active event recognizerdetermination module 273 determines that all views that include thephysical location of a sub-event are actively involved views, andtherefore determines that all actively involved views should receive aparticular sequence of sub-events. In other embodiments, even if touchsub-events were entirely confined to the area associated with oneparticular view, views higher in the hierarchy would still remain asactively involved views.

Event dispatcher module 274 dispatches the event information to an eventrecognizer (e.g., event recognizer 280). In embodiments including activeevent recognizer determination module 273, event dispatcher module 274delivers the event information to an event recognizer determined byactive event recognizer determination module 273. In some embodiments,event dispatcher module 274 stores in an event queue the eventinformation, which is retrieved by a respective event receiver 282.

In some embodiments, operating system 226 includes event sorter 270.Alternatively, application 236-1 includes event sorter 270. In yet otherembodiments, event sorter 270 is a stand-alone module, or a part ofanother module stored in memory 202, such as contact/motion module 230.

In some embodiments, application 236-1 includes a plurality of eventhandlers 290 and one or more application views 291, each of whichincludes instructions for handling touch events that occur within arespective view of the application's user interface. Each applicationview 291 of the application 236-1 includes one or more event recognizers280. Typically, a respective application view 291 includes a pluralityof event recognizers 280. In other embodiments, one or more of eventrecognizers 280 are part of a separate module, such as a user interfacekit (not shown) or a higher level object from which application 236-1inherits methods and other properties. In some embodiments, a respectiveevent handler 290 includes one or more of: data updater 276, objectupdater 277, GUI updater 278, and/or event data 279 received from eventsorter 270. Event handler 290 utilizes or calls data updater 276, objectupdater 277, or GUI updater 278 to update the application internal state292. Alternatively, one or more of the application views 291 include oneor more respective event handlers 290. Also, in some embodiments, one ormore of data updater 276, object updater 277, and GUI updater 278 areincluded in a respective application view 291.

A respective event recognizer 280 receives event information (e.g.,event data 279) from event sorter 270 and identifies an event from theevent information. Event recognizer 280 includes event receiver 282 andevent comparator 284. In some embodiments, event recognizer 280 alsoincludes at least a subset of: metadata 283, and event deliveryinstructions 288 (which include sub-event delivery instructions).

Event receiver 282 receives event information from event sorter 270. Theevent information includes information about a sub-event, for example, atouch or a touch movement. Depending on the sub-event, the eventinformation also includes additional information, such as location ofthe sub-event. When the sub-event concerns motion of a touch, the eventinformation also includes speed and direction of the sub-event. In someembodiments, events include rotation of the device from one orientationto another (e.g., from a portrait orientation to a landscapeorientation, or vice versa), and the event information includescorresponding information about the current orientation (also calleddevice attitude) of the device.

Event comparator 284 compares the event information to predefined eventor sub-event definitions and, based on the comparison, determines anevent or sub event, or determines or updates the state of an event orsub-event. In some embodiments, event comparator 284 includes eventdefinitions 286. Event definitions 286 contain definitions of events(e.g., predefined sequences of sub-events), for example, event 1(287-1), event 2 (287-2), and others. In some embodiments, sub-events inan event (287) include, for example, touch begin, touch end, touchmovement, touch cancellation, and multiple touching. In one example, thedefinition for event 1 (287-1) is a double tap on a displayed object.The double tap, for example, comprises a first touch (touch begin) onthe displayed object for a predetermined phase, a first liftoff (touchend) for a predetermined phase, a second touch (touch begin) on thedisplayed object for a predetermined phase, and a second liftoff (touchend) for a predetermined phase. In another example, the definition forevent 2 (287-2) is a dragging on a displayed object. The dragging, forexample, comprises a touch (or contact) on the displayed object for apredetermined phase, a movement of the touch across touch-sensitivedisplay 212, and liftoff of the touch (touch end). In some embodiments,the event also includes information for one or more associated eventhandlers 290.

In some embodiments, event definition 287 includes a definition of anevent for a respective user-interface object. In some embodiments, eventcomparator 284 performs a hit test to determine which user-interfaceobject is associated with a sub-event. For example, in an applicationview in which three user-interface objects are displayed ontouch-sensitive display 212, when a touch is detected on touch-sensitivedisplay 212, event comparator 284 performs a hit test to determine whichof the three user-interface objects is associated with the touch(sub-event). If each displayed object is associated with a respectiveevent handler 290, the event comparator uses the result of the hit testto determine which event handler 290 should be activated. For example,event comparator 284 selects an event handler associated with thesub-event and the object triggering the hit test.

In some embodiments, the definition for a respective event (287) alsoincludes delayed actions that delay delivery of the event informationuntil after it has been determined whether the sequence of sub-eventsdoes or does not correspond to the event recognizer's event type.

When a respective event recognizer 280 determines that the series ofsub-events do not match any of the events in event definitions 286, therespective event recognizer 280 enters an event impossible, eventfailed, or event ended state, after which it disregards subsequentsub-events of the touch-based gesture. In this situation, other eventrecognizers, if any, that remain active for the hit view continue totrack and process sub-events of an ongoing touch-based gesture.

In some embodiments, a respective event recognizer 280 includes metadata283 with configurable properties, flags, and/or lists that indicate howthe event delivery system should perform sub-event delivery to activelyinvolved event recognizers. In some embodiments, metadata 283 includesconfigurable properties, flags, and/or lists that indicate how eventrecognizers interact, or are enabled to interact, with one another. Insome embodiments, metadata 283 includes configurable properties, flags,and/or lists that indicate whether sub-events are delivered to varyinglevels in the view or programmatic hierarchy.

In some embodiments, a respective event recognizer 280 activates eventhandler 290 associated with an event when one or more particularsub-events of an event are recognized. In some embodiments, a respectiveevent recognizer 280 delivers event information associated with theevent to event handler 290. Activating an event handler 290 is distinctfrom sending (and deferred sending) sub-events to a respective hit view.In some embodiments, event recognizer 280 throws a flag associated withthe recognized event, and event handler 290 associated with the flagcatches the flag and performs a predefined process.

In some embodiments, event delivery instructions 288 include sub-eventdelivery instructions that deliver event information about a sub-eventwithout activating an event handler. Instead, the sub-event deliveryinstructions deliver event information to event handlers associated withthe series of sub-events or to actively involved views. Event handlersassociated with the series of sub-events or with actively involved viewsreceive the event information and perform a predetermined process.

In some embodiments, data updater 276 creates and updates data used inapplication 236-1. For example, data updater 276 updates the telephonenumber used in contacts module 237, or stores a video file used in videoplayer module. In some embodiments, object updater 277 creates andupdates objects used in application 236-1. For example, object updater277 creates a new user-interface object or updates the position of auser-interface object. GUI updater 278 updates the GUI. For example, GUIupdater 278 prepares display information and sends it to graphics module232 for display on a touch-sensitive display.

In some embodiments, event handler(s) 290 includes or has access to dataupdater 276, object updater 277, and GUI updater 278. In someembodiments, data updater 276, object updater 277, and GUI updater 278are included in a single module of a respective application 236-1 orapplication view 291. In other embodiments, they are included in two ormore software modules.

It shall be understood that the foregoing discussion regarding eventhandling of user touches on touch-sensitive displays also applies toother forms of user inputs to operate multifunction devices 200 withinput devices, not all of which are initiated on touch screens. Forexample, mouse movement and mouse button presses, optionally coordinatedwith single or multiple keyboard presses or holds; contact movementssuch as taps, drags, scrolls, etc. on touchpads; pen stylus inputs;movement of the device; oral instructions; detected eye movements;biometric inputs; and/or any combination thereof are optionally utilizedas inputs corresponding to sub-events which define an event to berecognized.

FIG. 3 illustrates a portable multifunction device 200 having a touchscreen 212 in accordance with some embodiments. The touch screenoptionally displays one or more graphics within user interface (UI) 300.In this embodiment, as well as others described below, a user is enabledto select one or more of the graphics by making a gesture on thegraphics, for example, with one or more fingers 302 (not drawn to scalein the figure) or one or more styluses 303 (not drawn to scale in thefigure). In some embodiments, selection of one or more graphics occurswhen the user breaks contact with the one or more graphics. In someembodiments, the gesture optionally includes one or more taps, one ormore swipes (from left to right, right to left, upward and/or downward),and/or a rolling of a finger (from right to left, left to right, upwardand/or downward) that has made contact with device 200. In someimplementations or circumstances, inadvertent contact with a graphicdoes not select the graphic. For example, a swipe gesture that sweepsover an application icon optionally does not select the correspondingapplication when the gesture corresponding to selection is a tap.

Device 200 also includes one or more physical buttons, such as “home” ormenu button 304. As described previously, menu button 304 is used tonavigate to any application 236 in a set of applications that isexecuted on device 200. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the menubutton is implemented as a soft key in a GUI displayed on touch screen212.

In one embodiment, device 200 includes touch screen 212, menu button304, push button 306 for powering the device on/off and locking thedevice, volume adjustment button(s) 308, subscriber identity module(SIM) card slot 310, headset jack 312, and docking/charging externalport 224. Push button 306 is, optionally, used to turn the power on/offon the device by depressing the button and holding the button in thedepressed state for a predefined time interval; to lock the device bydepressing the button and releasing the button before the predefinedtime interval has elapsed; and/or to unlock the device or initiate anunlock process. In an alternative embodiment, device 200 also acceptsverbal input for activation or deactivation of some functions throughmicrophone 213. Device 200 also, optionally, includes one or morecontact intensity sensors 265 for detecting intensity of contacts ontouch screen 212 and/or one or more tactile output generators 267 forgenerating tactile outputs for a user of device 200.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary multifunction device with adisplay and a touch-sensitive surface in accordance with someembodiments. Device 400 need not be portable. In some embodiments,device 400 is a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet computer,a multimedia player device, a navigation device, an educational device(such as a child's learning toy), a gaming system, or a control device(e.g., a home or industrial controller). Device 400 typically includesone or more processing units (CPUs) 410, one or more network or othercommunications interfaces 460, memory 470, and one or more communicationbuses 420 for interconnecting these components. Communication buses 420optionally include circuitry (sometimes called a chipset) thatinterconnects and controls communications between system components.Device 400 includes input/output (I/O) interface 430 comprising display440, which is typically a touch screen display. I/O interface 430 alsooptionally includes a keyboard and/or mouse (or other pointing device)450 and touchpad 455, tactile output generator 457 for generatingtactile outputs on device 400 (e.g., similar to tactile outputgenerator(s) 267 described above with reference to FIG. 2A), sensors 459(e.g., optical, acceleration, proximity, touch-sensitive, and/or contactintensity sensors similar to contact intensity sensor(s) 265 describedabove with reference to FIG. 2A). Memory 470 includes high-speed randomaccess memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, DDR RAM, or other random access solidstate memory devices; and optionally includes non-volatile memory, suchas one or more magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storagedevices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid state storagedevices. Memory 470 optionally includes one or more storage devicesremotely located from CPU(s) 410. In some embodiments, memory 470 storesprograms, modules, and data structures analogous to the programs,modules, and data structures stored in memory 202 of portablemultifunction device 200 (FIG. 2A), or a subset thereof. Furthermore,memory 470 optionally stores additional programs, modules, and datastructures not present in memory 202 of portable multifunction device200. For example, memory 470 of device 400 optionally stores drawingmodule 480, presentation module 482, word processing module 484, websitecreation module 486, disk authoring module 488, and/or spreadsheetmodule 490, while memory 202 of portable multifunction device 200 (FIG.2A) optionally does not store these modules.

Each of the above-identified elements in FIG. 4 is, in some examples,stored in one or more of the previously mentioned memory devices. Eachof the above-identified modules corresponds to a set of instructions forperforming a function described above. The above-identified modules orprograms (e.g., sets of instructions) need not be implemented asseparate software programs, procedures, or modules, and thus varioussubsets of these modules are combined or otherwise rearranged in variousembodiments. In some embodiments, memory 470 stores a subset of themodules and data structures identified above. Furthermore, memory 470stores additional modules and data structures not described above.

Attention is now directed towards embodiments of user interfaces thatcan be implemented on, for example, portable multifunction device 200.

FIG. 5A illustrates an exemplary user interface for a menu ofapplications on portable multifunction device 200 in accordance withsome embodiments. Similar user interfaces are implemented on device 400.In some embodiments, user interface 500 includes the following elements,or a subset or superset thereof:

Signal strength indicator(s) 502 for wireless communication(s), such ascellular and Wi-Fi signals;

-   -   Time 504;    -   Bluetooth indicator 505;    -   Battery status indicator 506;    -   Tray 508 with icons for frequently used applications, such as:        -   Icon 516 for telephone module 238, labeled “Phone,” which            optionally includes an indicator 514 of the number of missed            calls or voicemail messages;        -   Icon 518 for e-mail client module 240, labeled “Mail,” which            optionally includes an indicator 510 of the number of unread            e-mails;        -   Icon 520 for browser module 247, labeled “Browser;” and        -   Icon 522 for video and music player module 252, also            referred to as iPod (trademark of Apple Inc.) module 252,            labeled “iPod;” and    -   Icons for other applications, such as:        -   Icon 524 for IM module 241, labeled “Messages;”        -   Icon 526 for calendar module 248, labeled “Calendar;”        -   Icon 528 for image management module 244, labeled “Photos;”        -   Icon 530 for camera module 243, labeled “Camera;”        -   Icon 532 for online video module 255, labeled “Online            Video;”        -   Icon 534 for stocks widget 249-2, labeled “Stocks;”        -   Icon 536 for map module 254, labeled “Maps;”        -   Icon 538 for weather widget 249-1, labeled “Weather;”        -   Icon 540 for alarm clock widget 249-4, labeled “Clock;”        -   Icon 542 for workout support module 242, labeled “Workout            Support;”        -   Icon 544 for notes module 253, labeled “Notes;” and        -   Icon 546 for a settings application or module, labeled            “Settings,” which provides access to settings for device 200            and its various applications 236.

It should be noted that the icon labels illustrated in FIG. 5A aremerely exemplary. For example, icon 522 for video and music playermodule 252 is optionally labeled “Music” or “Music Player.” Other labelsare, optionally, used for various application icons. In someembodiments, a label for a respective application icon includes a nameof an application corresponding to the respective application icon. Insome embodiments, a label for a particular application icon is distinctfrom a name of an application corresponding to the particularapplication icon.

FIG. 5B illustrates an exemplary user interface on a device (e.g.,device 400, FIG. 4 ) with a touch-sensitive surface 551 (e.g., a tabletor touchpad 455, FIG. 4 ) that is separate from the display 550 (e.g.,touch screen display 212). Device 400 also, optionally, includes one ormore contact intensity sensors (e.g., one or more of sensors 459) fordetecting intensity of contacts on touch-sensitive surface 551 and/orone or more tactile output generators 457 for generating tactile outputsfor a user of device 400.

Although some of the examples which follow will be given with referenceto inputs on touch screen display 212 (where the touch-sensitive surfaceand the display are combined), in some embodiments, the device detectsinputs on a touch-sensitive surface that is separate from the display,as shown in FIG. 5B. In some embodiments, the touch-sensitive surface(e.g., 551 in FIG. 5B) has a primary axis (e.g., 552 in FIG. 5B) thatcorresponds to a primary axis (e.g., 553 in FIG. 5B) on the display(e.g., 550). In accordance with these embodiments, the device detectscontacts (e.g., 560 and 562 in FIG. 5B) with the touch-sensitive surface551 at locations that correspond to respective locations on the display(e.g., in FIG. 5B, 560 corresponds to 568 and 562 corresponds to 570).In this way, user inputs (e.g., contacts 560 and 562, and movementsthereof) detected by the device on the touch-sensitive surface (e.g.,551 in FIG. 5B) are used by the device to manipulate the user interfaceon the display (e.g., 550 in FIG. 5B) of the multifunction device whenthe touch-sensitive surface is separate from the display. It should beunderstood that similar methods are, optionally, used for other userinterfaces described herein.

Additionally, while the following examples are given primarily withreference to finger inputs (e.g., finger contacts, finger tap gestures,finger swipe gestures), it should be understood that, in someembodiments, one or more of the finger inputs are replaced with inputfrom another input device (e.g., a mouse-based input or stylus input).For example, a swipe gesture is, optionally, replaced with a mouse click(e.g., instead of a contact) followed by movement of the cursor alongthe path of the swipe (e.g., instead of movement of the contact). Asanother example, a tap gesture is, optionally, replaced with a mouseclick while the cursor is located over the location of the tap gesture(e.g., instead of detection of the contact followed by ceasing to detectthe contact). Similarly, when multiple user inputs are simultaneouslydetected, it should be understood that multiple computer mice are,optionally, used simultaneously, or a mouse and finger contacts are,optionally, used simultaneously.

FIG. 6A illustrates exemplary personal electronic device 600. Device 600includes body 602. In some embodiments, device 600 includes some or allof the features described with respect to devices 200 and 400 (e.g.,FIGS. 2A-4 ). In some embodiments, device 600 has touch-sensitivedisplay screen 604, hereafter touch screen 604. Alternatively, or inaddition to touch screen 604, device 600 has a display and atouch-sensitive surface. As with devices 200 and 400, in someembodiments, touch screen 604 (or the touch-sensitive surface) has oneor more intensity sensors for detecting intensity of contacts (e.g.,touches) being applied. The one or more intensity sensors of touchscreen 604 (or the touch-sensitive surface) provide output data thatrepresents the intensity of touches. The user interface of device 600responds to touches based on their intensity, meaning that touches ofdifferent intensities can invoke different user interface operations ondevice 600.

Techniques for detecting and processing touch intensity are found, forexample, in related applications: International Patent ApplicationSerial No. PCT/US2013/040061, titled “Device, Method, and Graphical UserInterface for Displaying User Interface Objects Corresponding to anApplication,” filed May 8, 2013, and International Patent ApplicationSerial No. PCT/US2013/069483, titled “Device, Method, and Graphical UserInterface for Transitioning Between Touch Input to Display OutputRelationships,” filed Nov. 11, 2013, each of which is herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety.

In some embodiments, device 600 has one or more input mechanisms 606 and608. Input mechanisms 606 and 608, if included, are physical. Examplesof physical input mechanisms include push buttons and rotatablemechanisms. In some embodiments, device 600 has one or more attachmentmechanisms. Such attachment mechanisms, if included, can permitattachment of device 600 with, for example, hats, eyewear, earrings,necklaces, shirts, jackets, bracelets, watch straps, chains, trousers,belts, shoes, purses, backpacks, and so forth. These attachmentmechanisms permit device 600 to be worn by a user.

FIG. 6B depicts exemplary personal electronic device 600. In someembodiments, device 600 includes some or all of the components describedwith respect to FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 4 . Device 600 has bus 612 thatoperatively couples I/O section 614 with one or more computer processors616 and memory 618. I/O section 614 is connected to display 604, whichcan have touch-sensitive component 622 and, optionally, touch-intensitysensitive component 624. In addition, I/O section 614 is connected withcommunication unit 630 for receiving application and operating systemdata, using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, near field communication (NFC), cellular,and/or other wireless communication techniques. Device 600 includesinput mechanisms 606 and/or 608. Input mechanism 606 is a rotatableinput device or a depressible and rotatable input device, for example.Input mechanism 608 is a button, in some examples.

Input mechanism 608 is a microphone, in some examples. Personalelectronic device 600 includes, for example, various sensors, such asGPS sensor 632, accelerometer 634, directional sensor 640 (e.g.,compass), gyroscope 636, motion sensor 638, and/or a combinationthereof, all of which are operatively connected to I/O section 614.

Memory 618 of personal electronic device 600 is a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium, for storing computer-executableinstructions, which, when executed by one or more computer processors616, for example, cause the computer processors to perform thetechniques and processes described below. The computer-executableinstructions, for example, are also stored and/or transported within anynon-transitory computer-readable storage medium for use by or inconnection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device,such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or othersystem that can fetch the instructions from the instruction executionsystem, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. Personalelectronic device 600 is not limited to the components and configurationof FIG. 6B, but can include other or additional components in multipleconfigurations.

As used here, the term “affordance” refers to a user-interactivegraphical user interface object that is, for example, displayed on thedisplay screen of devices 200, 400, and/or 600 (FIGS. 2A, 4, and 6A-6B).For example, an image (e.g., icon), a button, and text (e.g., hyperlink)each constitutes an affordance.

As used herein, the term “focus selector” refers to an input elementthat indicates a current part of a user interface with which a user isinteracting. In some implementations that include a cursor or otherlocation marker, the cursor acts as a “focus selector” so that when aninput (e.g., a press input) is detected on a touch-sensitive surface(e.g., touchpad 455 in FIG. 4 or touch-sensitive surface 551 in FIG. 5B)while the cursor is over a particular user interface element (e.g., abutton, window, slider or other user interface element), the particularuser interface element is adjusted in accordance with the detectedinput. In some implementations that include a touch screen display(e.g., touch-sensitive display system 212 in FIG. 2A or touch screen 212in FIG. 5A) that enables direct interaction with user interface elementson the touch screen display, a detected contact on the touch screen actsas a “focus selector” so that when an input (e.g., a press input by thecontact) is detected on the touch screen display at a location of aparticular user interface element (e.g., a button, window, slider, orother user interface element), the particular user interface element isadjusted in accordance with the detected input. In some implementations,focus is moved from one region of a user interface to another region ofthe user interface without corresponding movement of a cursor ormovement of a contact on a touch screen display (e.g., by using a tabkey or arrow keys to move focus from one button to another button); inthese implementations, the focus selector moves in accordance withmovement of focus between different regions of the user interface.Without regard to the specific form taken by the focus selector, thefocus selector is generally the user interface element (or contact on atouch screen display) that is controlled by the user so as tocommunicate the user's intended interaction with the user interface(e.g., by indicating, to the device, the element of the user interfacewith which the user is intending to interact). For example, the locationof a focus selector (e.g., a cursor, a contact, or a selection box) overa respective button while a press input is detected on thetouch-sensitive surface (e.g., a touchpad or touch screen) will indicatethat the user is intending to activate the respective button (as opposedto other user interface elements shown on a display of the device).

As used in the specification and claims, the term “characteristicintensity” of a contact refers to a characteristic of the contact basedon one or more intensities of the contact. In some embodiments, thecharacteristic intensity is based on multiple intensity samples. Thecharacteristic intensity is, optionally, based on a predefined number ofintensity samples, or a set of intensity samples collected during apredetermined time period (e.g., 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10seconds) relative to a predefined event (e.g., after detecting thecontact, prior to detecting liftoff of the contact, before or afterdetecting a start of movement of the contact, prior to detecting an endof the contact, before or after detecting an increase in intensity ofthe contact, and/or before or after detecting a decrease in intensity ofthe contact). A characteristic intensity of a contact is, optionallybased on one or more of: a maximum value of the intensities of thecontact, a mean value of the intensities of the contact, an averagevalue of the intensities of the contact, a top 10 percentile value ofthe intensities of the contact, a value at the half maximum of theintensities of the contact, a value at the 90 percent maximum of theintensities of the contact, or the like. In some embodiments, theduration of the contact is used in determining the characteristicintensity (e.g., when the characteristic intensity is an average of theintensity of the contact over time). In some embodiments, thecharacteristic intensity is compared to a set of one or more intensitythresholds to determine whether an operation has been performed by auser. For example, the set of one or more intensity thresholds includesa first intensity threshold and a second intensity threshold. In thisexample, a contact with a characteristic intensity that does not exceedthe first threshold results in a first operation, a contact with acharacteristic intensity that exceeds the first intensity threshold anddoes not exceed the second intensity threshold results in a secondoperation, and a contact with a characteristic intensity that exceedsthe second threshold results in a third operation. In some embodiments,a comparison between the characteristic intensity and one or morethresholds is used to determine whether or not to perform one or moreoperations (e.g., whether to perform a respective operation or forgoperforming the respective operation) rather than being used to determinewhether to perform a first operation or a second operation.

In some embodiments, a portion of a gesture is identified for purposesof determining a characteristic intensity. For example, atouch-sensitive surface receives a continuous swipe contacttransitioning from a start location and reaching an end location, atwhich point the intensity of the contact increases. In this example, thecharacteristic intensity of the contact at the end location is based ononly a portion of the continuous swipe contact, and not the entire swipecontact (e.g., only the portion of the swipe contact at the endlocation). In some embodiments, a smoothing algorithm is applied to theintensities of the swipe contact prior to determining the characteristicintensity of the contact. For example, the smoothing algorithmoptionally includes one or more of: an unweighted sliding-averagesmoothing algorithm, a triangular smoothing algorithm, a median filtersmoothing algorithm, and/or an exponential smoothing algorithm. In somecircumstances, these smoothing algorithms eliminate narrow spikes ordips in the intensities of the swipe contact for purposes of determininga characteristic intensity.

The intensity of a contact on the touch-sensitive surface ischaracterized relative to one or more intensity thresholds, such as acontact-detection intensity threshold, a light press intensitythreshold, a deep press intensity threshold, and/or one or more otherintensity thresholds. In some embodiments, the light press intensitythreshold corresponds to an intensity at which the device will performoperations typically associated with clicking a button of a physicalmouse or a trackpad. In some embodiments, the deep press intensitythreshold corresponds to an intensity at which the device will performoperations that are different from operations typically associated withclicking a button of a physical mouse or a trackpad. In someembodiments, when a contact is detected with a characteristic intensitybelow the light press intensity threshold (e.g., and above a nominalcontact-detection intensity threshold below which the contact is nolonger detected), the device will move a focus selector in accordancewith movement of the contact on the touch-sensitive surface withoutperforming an operation associated with the light press intensitythreshold or the deep press intensity threshold. Generally, unlessotherwise stated, these intensity thresholds are consistent betweendifferent sets of user interface figures.

An increase of characteristic intensity of the contact from an intensitybelow the light press intensity threshold to an intensity between thelight press intensity threshold and the deep press intensity thresholdis sometimes referred to as a “light press” input. An increase ofcharacteristic intensity of the contact from an intensity below the deeppress intensity threshold to an intensity above the deep press intensitythreshold is sometimes referred to as a “deep press” input. An increaseof characteristic intensity of the contact from an intensity below thecontact-detection intensity threshold to an intensity between thecontact-detection intensity threshold and the light press intensitythreshold is sometimes referred to as detecting the contact on thetouch-surface. A decrease of characteristic intensity of the contactfrom an intensity above the contact-detection intensity threshold to anintensity below the contact-detection intensity threshold is sometimesreferred to as detecting liftoff of the contact from the touch-surface.In some embodiments, the contact-detection intensity threshold is zero.In some embodiments, the contact-detection intensity threshold isgreater than zero.

In some embodiments described herein, one or more operations areperformed in response to detecting a gesture that includes a respectivepress input or in response to detecting the respective press inputperformed with a respective contact (or a plurality of contacts), wherethe respective press input is detected based at least in part ondetecting an increase in intensity of the contact (or plurality ofcontacts) above a press-input intensity threshold. In some embodiments,the respective operation is performed in response to detecting theincrease in intensity of the respective contact above the press-inputintensity threshold (e.g., a “down stroke” of the respective pressinput). In some embodiments, the press input includes an increase inintensity of the respective contact above the press-input intensitythreshold and a subsequent decrease in intensity of the contact belowthe press-input intensity threshold, and the respective operation isperformed in response to detecting the subsequent decrease in intensityof the respective contact below the press-input threshold (e.g., an “upstroke” of the respective press input).

In some embodiments, the device employs intensity hysteresis to avoidaccidental inputs sometimes termed “jitter,” where the device defines orselects a hysteresis intensity threshold with a predefined relationshipto the press-input intensity threshold (e.g., the hysteresis intensitythreshold is X intensity units lower than the press-input intensitythreshold or the hysteresis intensity threshold is 75%, 90%, or somereasonable proportion of the press-input intensity threshold). Thus, insome embodiments, the press input includes an increase in intensity ofthe respective contact above the press-input intensity threshold and asubsequent decrease in intensity of the contact below the hysteresisintensity threshold that corresponds to the press-input intensitythreshold, and the respective operation is performed in response todetecting the subsequent decrease in intensity of the respective contactbelow the hysteresis intensity threshold (e.g., an “up stroke” of therespective press input). Similarly, in some embodiments, the press inputis detected only when the device detects an increase in intensity of thecontact from an intensity at or below the hysteresis intensity thresholdto an intensity at or above the press-input intensity threshold and,optionally, a subsequent decrease in intensity of the contact to anintensity at or below the hysteresis intensity, and the respectiveoperation is performed in response to detecting the press input (e.g.,the increase in intensity of the contact or the decrease in intensity ofthe contact, depending on the circumstances).

For ease of explanation, the descriptions of operations performed inresponse to a press input associated with a press-input intensitythreshold or in response to a gesture including the press input are,optionally, triggered in response to detecting either: an increase inintensity of a contact above the press-input intensity threshold, anincrease in intensity of a contact from an intensity below thehysteresis intensity threshold to an intensity above the press-inputintensity threshold, a decrease in intensity of the contact below thepress-input intensity threshold, and/or a decrease in intensity of thecontact below the hysteresis intensity threshold corresponding to thepress-input intensity threshold. Additionally, in examples where anoperation is described as being performed in response to detecting adecrease in intensity of a contact below the press-input intensitythreshold, the operation is, optionally, performed in response todetecting a decrease in intensity of the contact below a hysteresisintensity threshold corresponding to, and lower than, the press-inputintensity threshold.

3. Digital Assistant System

FIG. 7A illustrates a block diagram of digital assistant system 700 inaccordance with various examples. In some examples, digital assistantsystem 700 is implemented on a standalone computer system. In someexamples, digital assistant system 700 is distributed across multiplecomputers. In some examples, some of the modules and functions of thedigital assistant are divided into a server portion and a clientportion, where the client portion resides on one or more user devices(e.g., devices 104, 122, 200, 400, or 600) and communicates with theserver portion (e.g., server system 108) through one or more networks,e.g., as shown in FIG. 1 . In some examples, digital assistant system700 is an implementation of server system 108 (and/or DA server 106)shown in FIG. 1 . It should be noted that digital assistant system 700is only one example of a digital assistant system, and that digitalassistant system 700 can have more or fewer components than shown, cancombine two or more components, or can have a different configuration orarrangement of the components. The various components shown in FIG. 7Aare implemented in hardware, software instructions for execution by oneor more processors, firmware, including one or more signal processingand/or application specific integrated circuits, or a combinationthereof.

Digital assistant system 700 includes memory 702, one or more processors704, input/output (I/O) interface 706, and network communicationsinterface 708. These components can communicate with one another overone or more communication buses or signal lines 710.

In some examples, memory 702 includes a non-transitory computer-readablemedium, such as high-speed random access memory and/or a non-volatilecomputer-readable storage medium (e.g., one or more magnetic diskstorage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid-statememory devices).

In some examples, I/O interface 706 couples input/output devices 716 ofdigital assistant system 700, such as displays, keyboards, touchscreens, and microphones, to user interface module 722. I/O interface706, in conjunction with user interface module 722, receives user inputs(e.g., voice input, keyboard inputs, touch inputs, etc.) and processesthem accordingly. In some examples, e.g., when the digital assistant isimplemented on a standalone user device, digital assistant system 700includes any of the components and I/O communication interfacesdescribed with respect to devices 200, 400, or 600 in FIGS. 2A, 4,6A-6B, respectively. In some examples, digital assistant system 700represents the server portion of a digital assistant implementation, andcan interact with the user through a client-side portion residing on auser device (e.g., devices 104, 200, 400, or 600).

In some examples, the network communications interface 708 includeswired communication port(s) 712 and/or wireless transmission andreception circuitry 714. The wired communication port(s) receives andsend communication signals via one or more wired interfaces, e.g.,Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, etc. The wirelesscircuitry 714 receives and sends RF signals and/or optical signalsfrom/to communications networks and other communications devices. Thewireless communications use any of a plurality of communicationsstandards, protocols, and technologies, such as GSM, EDGE, CDMA, TDMA,Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, VoIP, Wi-MAX, or any other suitable communicationprotocol. Network communications interface 708 enables communicationbetween digital assistant system 700 with networks, such as theInternet, an intranet, and/or a wireless network, such as a cellulartelephone network, a wireless local area network (LAN), and/or ametropolitan area network (MAN), and other devices.

In some examples, memory 702, or the computer-readable storage media ofmemory 702, stores programs, modules, instructions, and data structuresincluding all or a subset of: operating system 718, communicationsmodule 720, user interface module 722, one or more applications 724, anddigital assistant module 726. In particular, memory 702, or thecomputer-readable storage media of memory 702, stores instructions forperforming the processes described below. One or more processors 704execute these programs, modules, and instructions, and reads/writesfrom/to the data structures.

Operating system 718 (e.g., Darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, iOS, OS X,WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VxWorks) includesvarious software components and/or drivers for controlling and managinggeneral system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control,power management, etc.) and facilitates communications between varioushardware, firmware, and software components.

Communications module 720 facilitates communications between digitalassistant system 700 with other devices over network communicationsinterface 708. For example, communications module 720 communicates withRF circuitry 208 of electronic devices such as devices 200, 400, and 600shown in FIGS. 2A, 4, 6A-6B, respectively. Communications module 720also includes various components for handling data received by wirelesscircuitry 714 and/or wired communications port 712.

User interface module 722 receives commands and/or inputs from a uservia I/O interface 706 (e.g., from a keyboard, touch screen, pointingdevice, controller, and/or microphone), and generate user interfaceobjects on a display. User interface module 722 also prepares anddelivers outputs (e.g., speech, sound, animation, text, icons,vibrations, haptic feedback, light, etc.) to the user via the I/Ointerface 706 (e.g., through displays, audio channels, speakers,touch-pads, etc.).

Applications 724 include programs and/or modules that are configured tobe executed by one or more processors 704. For example, if the digitalassistant system is implemented on a standalone user device,applications 724 include user applications, such as games, a calendarapplication, a navigation application, or an email application. Ifdigital assistant system 700 is implemented on a server, applications724 include resource management applications, diagnostic applications,or scheduling applications, for example.

Memory 702 also stores digital assistant module 726 (or the serverportion of a digital assistant). In some examples, digital assistantmodule 726 includes the following sub-modules, or a subset or supersetthereof: input/output processing module 728, speech-to-text (STT)processing module 730, natural language processing module 732, dialogueflow processing module 734, task flow processing module 736, serviceprocessing module 738, and speech synthesis processing module 740. Eachof these modules has access to one or more of the following systems ordata and models of the digital assistant module 726, or a subset orsuperset thereof: ontology 760, vocabulary index 744, user data 748,task flow models 754, service models 756, and ASR systems 758.

In some examples, using the processing modules, data, and modelsimplemented in digital assistant module 726, the digital assistant canperform at least some of the following: converting speech input intotext; identifying a user's intent expressed in a natural language inputreceived from the user; actively eliciting and obtaining informationneeded to fully infer the user's intent (e.g., by disambiguating words,games, intentions, etc.); determining the task flow for fulfilling theinferred intent; and executing the task flow to fulfill the inferredintent.

In some examples, as shown in FIG. 7B, I/O processing module 728interacts with the user through I/O devices 716 in FIG. 7A or with auser device (e.g., devices 104, 200, 400, or 600) through networkcommunications interface 708 in FIG. 7A to obtain user input (e.g., aspeech input) and to provide responses (e.g., as speech outputs) to theuser input. I/O processing module 728 optionally obtains contextualinformation associated with the user input from the user device, alongwith or shortly after the receipt of the user input. The contextualinformation includes user-specific data, vocabulary, and/or preferencesrelevant to the user input. In some examples, the contextual informationalso includes software and hardware states of the user device at thetime the user request is received, and/or information related to thesurrounding environment of the user at the time that the user requestwas received. In some examples, I/O processing module 728 also sendsfollow-up questions to, and receive answers from, the user regarding theuser request. When a user request is received by I/O processing module728 and the user request includes speech input, I/O processing module728 forwards the speech input to STT processing module 730 (or speechrecognizer) for speech-to-text conversions.

STT processing module 730 includes one or more ASR systems 758. The oneor more ASR systems 758 can process the speech input that is receivedthrough I/O processing module 728 to produce a recognition result. EachASR system 758 includes a front-end speech pre-processor. The front-endspeech pre-processor extracts representative features from the speechinput. For example, the front-end speech pre-processor performs aFourier transform on the speech input to extract spectral features thatcharacterize the speech input as a sequence of representativemulti-dimensional vectors. Further, each ASR system 758 includes one ormore speech recognition models (e.g., acoustic models and/or languagemodels) and implements one or more speech recognition engines. Examplesof speech recognition models include Hidden Markov Models,Gaussian-Mixture Models, Deep Neural Network Models, n-gram languagemodels, and other statistical models. Examples of speech recognitionengines include the dynamic time warping based engines and weightedfinite-state transducers (WFST) based engines. The one or more speechrecognition models and the one or more speech recognition engines areused to process the extracted representative features of the front-endspeech pre-processor to produce intermediate recognitions results (e.g.,phonemes, phonemic strings, and sub-words), and ultimately, textrecognition results (e.g., words, word strings, or sequence of tokens).In some examples, the speech input is processed at least partially by athird-party service or on the user's device (e.g., device 104, 200, 400,or 600) to produce the recognition result. Once STT processing module730 produces recognition results containing a text string (e.g., words,or sequence of words, or sequence of tokens), the recognition result ispassed to natural language processing module 732 for intent deduction.In some examples, STT processing module 730 produces multiple candidatetext representations of the speech input. Each candidate textrepresentation is a sequence of words or tokens corresponding to thespeech input. In some examples, each candidate text representation isassociated with a speech recognition confidence score. Based on thespeech recognition confidence scores, STT processing module 730 ranksthe candidate text representations and provides the n-best (e.g., nhighest ranked) candidate text representation(s) to natural languageprocessing module 732 for intent deduction, where n is a predeterminedinteger greater than zero. For example, in one example, only the highestranked (n=1) candidate text representation is passed to natural languageprocessing module 732 for intent deduction. In another example, the fivehighest ranked (n=5) candidate text representations are passed tonatural language processing module 732 for intent deduction.

More details on the speech-to-text processing are described in U.S.Utility application Ser. No. 13/236,942 for “Consolidating SpeechRecognition Results,” filed on Sep. 20, 2011, the entire disclosure ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference.

In some examples, STT processing module 730 includes and/or accesses avocabulary of recognizable words via phonetic alphabet conversion module731. Each vocabulary word is associated with one or more candidatepronunciations of the word represented in a speech recognition phoneticalphabet. In particular, the vocabulary of recognizable words includes aword that is associated with a plurality of candidate pronunciations.For example, the vocabulary includes the word “tomato” that isassociated with the candidate pronunciations of

and

. Further, vocabulary words are associated with custom candidatepronunciations that are based on previous speech inputs from the user.Such custom candidate pronunciations are stored in STT processing module730 and are associated with a particular user via the user's profile onthe device. In some examples, the candidate pronunciations for words aredetermined based on the spelling of the word and one or more linguisticand/or phonetic rules. In some examples, the candidate pronunciationsare manually generated, e.g., based on known canonical pronunciations.

In some examples, the candidate pronunciations are ranked based on thecommonness of the candidate pronunciation. For example, the candidatepronunciation

is ranked higher than

, because the former is a more commonly used pronunciation (e.g., amongall users, for users in a particular geographical region, or for anyother appropriate subset of users). In some examples, candidatepronunciations are ranked based on whether the candidate pronunciationis a custom candidate pronunciation associated with the user. Forexample, custom candidate pronunciations are ranked higher thancanonical candidate pronunciations. This can be useful for recognizingproper nouns having a unique pronunciation that deviates from canonicalpronunciation. In some examples, candidate pronunciations are associatedwith one or more speech characteristics, such as geographic origin,nationality, or ethnicity. For example, the candidate pronunciation

is associated with the United States, whereas the candidatepronunciation

is associated with Great Britain. Further, the rank of the candidatepronunciation is based on one or more characteristics (e.g., geographicorigin, nationality, ethnicity, etc.) of the user stored in the user'sprofile on the device. For example, it can be determined from the user'sprofile that the user is associated with the United States. Based on theuser being associated with the United States, the candidatepronunciation

(associated with the United States) is ranked higher than the candidatepronunciation

(associated with Great Britain). In some examples, one of the rankedcandidate pronunciations is selected as a predicted pronunciation (e.g.,the most likely pronunciation).

When a speech input is received, STT processing module 730 is used todetermine the phonemes corresponding to the speech input (e.g., using anacoustic model), and then attempt to determine words that match thephonemes (e.g., using a language model). For example, if STT processingmodule 730 first identifies the sequence of phonemes

corresponding to a portion of the speech input, it can then determine,based on vocabulary index 744, that this sequence corresponds to theword “tomato.”

In some examples, STT processing module 730 uses approximate matchingtechniques to determine words in an utterance. Thus, for example, theSTT processing module 730 determines that the sequence of phonemes

corresponds to the word “tomato,” even if that particular sequence ofphonemes is not one of the candidate sequence of phonemes for that word.

Natural language processing module 732 (“natural language processor”) ofthe digital assistant takes the n-best candidate text representation(s)(“word sequence(s)” or “token sequence(s)”) generated by STT processingmodule 730, and attempts to associate each of the candidate textrepresentations with one or more “actionable intents” recognized by thedigital assistant. An “actionable intent” (or “user intent”) representsa task that can be performed by the digital assistant, and can have anassociated task flow implemented in task flow models 754. The associatedtask flow is a series of programmed actions and steps that the digitalassistant takes in order to perform the task. The scope of a digitalassistant's capabilities is dependent on the number and variety of taskflows that have been implemented and stored in task flow models 754, orin other words, on the number and variety of “actionable intents” thatthe digital assistant recognizes. The effectiveness of the digitalassistant, however, also dependents on the assistant's ability to inferthe correct “actionable intent(s)” from the user request expressed innatural language.

In some examples, in addition to the sequence of words or tokensobtained from STT processing module 730, natural language processingmodule 732 also receives contextual information associated with the userrequest, e.g., from I/O processing module 728. The natural languageprocessing module 732 optionally uses the contextual information toclarify, supplement, and/or further define the information contained inthe candidate text representations received from STT processing module730. The contextual information includes, for example, user preferences,hardware, and/or software states of the user device, sensor informationcollected before, during, or shortly after the user request, priorinteractions (e.g., dialogue) between the digital assistant and theuser, and the like. As described herein, contextual information is, insome examples, dynamic, and changes with time, location, content of thedialogue, and other factors.

In some examples, the natural language processing is based on, e.g.,ontology 760. Ontology 760 is a hierarchical structure containing manynodes, each node representing either an “actionable intent” or a“property” relevant to one or more of the “actionable intents” or other“properties.” As noted above, an “actionable intent” represents a taskthat the digital assistant is capable of performing, i.e., it is“actionable” or can be acted on. A “property” represents a parameterassociated with an actionable intent or a sub-aspect of anotherproperty. A linkage between an actionable intent node and a propertynode in ontology 760 defines how a parameter represented by the propertynode pertains to the task represented by the actionable intent node.

In some examples, ontology 760 is made up of actionable intent nodes andproperty nodes. Within ontology 760, each actionable intent node islinked to one or more property nodes either directly or through one ormore intermediate property nodes. Similarly, each property node islinked to one or more actionable intent nodes either directly or throughone or more intermediate property nodes. For example, as shown in FIG.7C, ontology 760 includes a “restaurant reservation” node (i.e., anactionable intent node). Property nodes “restaurant,” “date/time” (forthe reservation), and “party size” are each directly linked to theactionable intent node (i.e., the “restaurant reservation” node).

In addition, property nodes “cuisine,” “price range,” “phone number,”and “location” are sub-nodes of the property node “restaurant,” and areeach linked to the “restaurant reservation” node (i.e., the actionableintent node) through the intermediate property node “restaurant.” Foranother example, as shown in FIG. 7C, ontology 760 also includes a “setreminder” node (i.e., another actionable intent node). Property nodes“date/time” (for setting the reminder) and “subject” (for the reminder)are each linked to the “set reminder” node. Since the property“date/time” is relevant to both the task of making a restaurantreservation and the task of setting a reminder, the property node“date/time” is linked to both the “restaurant reservation” node and the“set reminder” node in ontology 760.

An actionable intent node, along with its linked property nodes, isdescribed as a “domain.” In the present discussion, each domain isassociated with a respective actionable intent, and refers to the groupof nodes (and the relationships there between) associated with theparticular actionable intent. For example, ontology 760 shown in FIG. 7Cincludes an example of restaurant reservation domain 762 and an exampleof reminder domain 764 within ontology 760. The restaurant reservationdomain includes the actionable intent node “restaurant reservation,”property nodes “restaurant,” “date/time,” and “party size,” andsub-property nodes “cuisine,” “price range,” “phone number,” and“location.” Reminder domain 764 includes the actionable intent node “setreminder,” and property nodes “subject” and “date/time.” In someexamples, ontology 760 is made up of many domains. Each domain sharesone or more property nodes with one or more other domains. For example,the “date/time” property node is associated with many different domains(e.g., a scheduling domain, a travel reservation domain, a movie ticketdomain, etc.), in addition to restaurant reservation domain 762 andreminder domain 764.

While FIG. 7C illustrates two example domains within ontology 760, otherdomains include, for example, “find a movie,” “initiate a phone call,”“find directions,” “schedule a meeting,” “send a message,” and “providean answer to a question,” “read a list,” “providing navigationinstructions,” “provide instructions for a task” and so on. A “send amessage” domain is associated with a “send a message” actionable intentnode, and further includes property nodes such as “recipient(s),”“message type,” and “message body.” The property node “recipient” isfurther defined, for example, by the sub-property nodes such as“recipient name” and “message address.”

In some examples, ontology 760 includes all the domains (and henceactionable intents) that the digital assistant is capable ofunderstanding and acting upon. In some examples, ontology 760 ismodified, such as by adding or removing entire domains or nodes, or bymodifying relationships between the nodes within the ontology 760.

In some examples, nodes associated with multiple related actionableintents are clustered under a “super domain” in ontology 760. Forexample, a “travel” super-domain includes a cluster of property nodesand actionable intent nodes related to travel. The actionable intentnodes related to travel includes “airline reservation,” “hotelreservation,” “car rental,” “get directions,” “find points of interest,”and so on. The actionable intent nodes under the same super domain(e.g., the “travel” super domain) have many property nodes in common.For example, the actionable intent nodes for “airline reservation,”“hotel reservation,” “car rental,” “get directions,” and “find points ofinterest” share one or more of the property nodes “start location,”“destination,” “departure date/time,” “arrival date/time,” and “partysize.”

In some examples, each node in ontology 760 is associated with a set ofwords and/or phrases that are relevant to the property or actionableintent represented by the node. The respective set of words and/orphrases associated with each node are the so-called “vocabulary”associated with the node. The respective set of words and/or phrasesassociated with each node are stored in vocabulary index 744 inassociation with the property or actionable intent represented by thenode. For example, returning to FIG. 7B, the vocabulary associated withthe node for the property of “restaurant” includes words such as “food,”“drinks,” “cuisine,” “hungry,” “eat,” “pizza,” “fast food,” “meal,” andso on. For another example, the vocabulary associated with the node forthe actionable intent of “initiate a phone call” includes words andphrases such as “call,” “phone,” “dial,” “ring,” “call this number,”“make a call to,” and so on. The vocabulary index 744 optionallyincludes words and phrases in different languages.

Natural language processing module 732 receives the candidate textrepresentations (e.g., text string(s) or token sequence(s)) from STTprocessing module 730, and for each candidate representation, determineswhat nodes are implicated by the words in the candidate textrepresentation. In some examples, if a word or phrase in the candidatetext representation is found to be associated with one or more nodes inontology 760 (via vocabulary index 744), the word or phrase “triggers”or “activates” those nodes. Based on the quantity and/or relativeimportance of the activated nodes, natural language processing module732 selects one of the actionable intents as the task that the userintended the digital assistant to perform. In some examples, the domainthat has the most “triggered” nodes is selected. In some examples, thedomain having the highest confidence value (e.g., based on the relativeimportance of its various triggered nodes) is selected. In someexamples, the domain is selected based on a combination of the numberand the importance of the triggered nodes. In some examples, additionalfactors are considered in selecting the node as well, such as whetherthe digital assistant has previously correctly interpreted a similarrequest from a user.

User data 748 includes user-specific information, such as user-specificvocabulary, user preferences, user address, user's default and secondarylanguages, user's contact list, and other short-term or long-terminformation for each user. In some examples, natural language processingmodule 732 uses the user-specific information to supplement theinformation contained in the user input to further define the userintent. For example, for a user request “invite my friends to mybirthday party,” natural language processing module 732 is able toaccess user data 748 to determine who the “friends” are and when andwhere the “birthday party” would be held, rather than requiring the userto provide such information explicitly in his/her request.

It should be recognized that in some examples, natural languageprocessing module 732 is implemented using one or more machine learningmechanisms (e.g., neural networks). In particular, the one or moremachine learning mechanisms are configured to receive a candidate textrepresentation and contextual information associated with the candidatetext representation. Based on the candidate text representation and theassociated contextual information, the one or more machine learningmechanisms are configured to determine intent confidence scores over aset of candidate actionable intents. Natural language processing module732 can select one or more candidate actionable intents from the set ofcandidate actionable intents based on the determined intent confidencescores. In some examples, an ontology (e.g., ontology 760) is also usedto select the one or more candidate actionable intents from the set ofcandidate actionable intents.

Other details of searching an ontology based on a token string aredescribed in U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 12/341,743 for “Methodand Apparatus for Searching Using An Active Ontology,” filed Dec. 22,2008, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference.

In some examples, once natural language processing module 732 identifiesan actionable intent (or domain) based on the user request, naturallanguage processing module 732 generates a structured query to representthe identified actionable intent. In some examples, the structured queryincludes parameters for one or more nodes within the domain for theactionable intent, and at least some of the parameters are populatedwith the specific information and requirements specified in the userrequest. For example, the user says “Make me a dinner reservation at asushi place at 7.” In this case, natural language processing module 732is able to correctly identify the actionable intent to be “restaurantreservation” based on the user input. According to the ontology, astructured query for a “restaurant reservation” domain includesparameters such as {Cuisine}, {Time}, {Date}, {Party Size}, and thelike. In some examples, based on the speech input and the text derivedfrom the speech input using STT processing module 730, natural languageprocessing module 732 generates a partial structured query for therestaurant reservation domain, where the partial structured queryincludes the parameters {Cuisine=“Sushi”} and {Time=“7 pm”}. However, inthis example, the user's utterance contains insufficient information tocomplete the structured query associated with the domain. Therefore,other necessary parameters such as {Party Size} and {Date} are notspecified in the structured query based on the information currentlyavailable. In some examples, natural language processing module 732populates some parameters of the structured query with receivedcontextual information. For example, in some examples, if the userrequested a sushi restaurant “near me,” natural language processingmodule 732 populates a {location} parameter in the structured query withGPS coordinates from the user device.

In some examples, natural language processing module 732 identifiesmultiple candidate actionable intents for each candidate textrepresentation received from STT processing module 730. Further, in someexamples, a respective structured query (partial or complete) isgenerated for each identified candidate actionable intent. Naturallanguage processing module 732 determines an intent confidence score foreach candidate actionable intent and ranks the candidate actionableintents based on the intent confidence scores. In some examples, naturallanguage processing module 732 passes the generated structured query (orqueries), including any completed parameters, to task flow processingmodule 736 (“task flow processor”). In some examples, the structuredquery (or queries) for the m-best (e.g., m highest ranked) candidateactionable intents are provided to task flow processing module 736,where m is a predetermined integer greater than zero. In some examples,the structured query (or queries) for the m-best candidate actionableintents are provided to task flow processing module 736 with thecorresponding candidate text representation(s).

Other details of inferring a user intent based on multiple candidateactionable intents determined from multiple candidate textrepresentations of a speech input are described in U.S. Utilityapplication Ser. No. 14/298,725 for “System and Method for InferringUser Intent From Speech Inputs,” filed Jun. 6, 2014, the entiredisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Task flow processing module 736 is configured to receive the structuredquery (or queries) from natural language processing module 732, completethe structured query, if necessary, and perform the actions required to“complete” the user's ultimate request. In some examples, the variousprocedures necessary to complete these tasks are provided in task flowmodels 754. In some examples, task flow models 754 include proceduresfor obtaining additional information from the user and task flows forperforming actions associated with the actionable intent.

As described above, in order to complete a structured query, task flowprocessing module 736 needs to initiate additional dialogue with theuser in order to obtain additional information, and/or disambiguatepotentially ambiguous utterances. When such interactions are necessary,task flow processing module 736 invokes dialogue flow processing module734 to engage in a dialogue with the user. In some examples, dialogueflow processing module 734 determines how (and/or when) to ask the userfor the additional information and receives and processes the userresponses. The questions are provided to and answers are received fromthe users through I/O processing module 728. In some examples, dialogueflow processing module 734 presents dialogue output to the user viaaudio and/or visual output, and receives input from the user via spokenor physical (e.g., clicking) responses. Continuing with the exampleabove, when task flow processing module 736 invokes dialogue flowprocessing module 734 to determine the “party size” and “date”information for the structured query associated with the domain“restaurant reservation,” dialogue flow processing module 734 generatesquestions such as “For how many people?” and “On which day?” to pass tothe user. Once answers are received from the user, dialogue flowprocessing module 734 then populates the structured query with themissing information, or pass the information to task flow processingmodule 736 to complete the missing information from the structuredquery.

Once task flow processing module 736 has completed the structured queryfor an actionable intent, task flow processing module 736 proceeds toperform the ultimate task associated with the actionable intent.Accordingly, task flow processing module 736 executes the steps andinstructions in the task flow model according to the specific parameterscontained in the structured query. For example, the task flow model forthe actionable intent of “restaurant reservation” includes steps andinstructions for contacting a restaurant and actually requesting areservation for a particular party size at a particular time. Forexample, using a structured query such as: {restaurant reservation,restaurant=ABC Café, date=3/12/2012, time=7 pm, party size=5}, task flowprocessing module 736 performs the steps of: (1) logging onto a serverof the ABC Café or a restaurant reservation system such as OPENTABLE®,(2) entering the date, time, and party size information in a form on thewebsite, (3) submitting the form, and (4) making a calendar entry forthe reservation in the user's calendar.

In some examples, task flow processing module 736 employs the assistanceof service processing module 738 (“service processing module”) tocomplete a task requested in the user input or to provide aninformational answer requested in the user input. For example, serviceprocessing module 738 acts on behalf of task flow processing module 736to make a phone call, set a calendar entry, invoke a map search, invokeor interact with other user applications installed on the user device,and invoke or interact with third-party services (e.g., a restaurantreservation portal, a social networking website, a banking portal,etc.). In some examples, the protocols and application programminginterfaces (API) required by each service are specified by a respectiveservice model among service models 756. Service processing module 738accesses the appropriate service model for a service and generatesrequests for the service in accordance with the protocols and APIsrequired by the service according to the service model.

For example, if a restaurant has enabled an online reservation service,the restaurant submits a service model specifying the necessaryparameters for making a reservation and the APIs for communicating thevalues of the necessary parameter to the online reservation service.When requested by task flow processing module 736, service processingmodule 738 establishes a network connection with the online reservationservice using the web address stored in the service model, and sends thenecessary parameters of the reservation (e.g., time, date, party size)to the online reservation interface in a format according to the API ofthe online reservation service.

In some examples, natural language processing module 732, dialogue flowprocessing module 734, and task flow processing module 736 are usedcollectively and iteratively to infer and define the user's intent,obtain information to further clarify and refine the user intent, andfinally generate a response (i.e., an output to the user, or thecompletion of a task) to fulfill the user's intent. The generatedresponse is a dialogue response to the speech input that at leastpartially fulfills the user's intent. Further, in some examples, thegenerated response is output as a speech output. In these examples, thegenerated response is sent to speech synthesis processing module 740(e.g., speech synthesizer) where it can be processed to synthesize thedialogue response in speech form. In yet other examples, the generatedresponse is data content relevant to satisfying a user request in thespeech input.

In examples where task flow processing module 736 receives multiplestructured queries from natural language processing module 732, taskflow processing module 736 initially processes the first structuredquery of the received structured queries to attempt to complete thefirst structured query and/or execute one or more tasks or actionsrepresented by the first structured query. In some examples, the firststructured query corresponds to the highest ranked actionable intent. Inother examples, the first structured query is selected from the receivedstructured queries based on a combination of the corresponding speechrecognition confidence scores and the corresponding intent confidencescores. In some examples, if task flow processing module 736 encountersan error during processing of the first structured query (e.g., due toan inability to determine a necessary parameter), the task flowprocessing module 736 can proceed to select and process a secondstructured query of the received structured queries that corresponds toa lower ranked actionable intent. The second structured query isselected, for example, based on the speech recognition confidence scoreof the corresponding candidate text representation, the intentconfidence score of the corresponding candidate actionable intent, amissing necessary parameter in the first structured query, or anycombination thereof.

Speech synthesis processing module 740 is configured to synthesizespeech outputs for presentation to the user. Speech synthesis processingmodule 740 synthesizes speech outputs based on text provided by thedigital assistant. For example, the generated dialogue response is inthe form of a text string. Speech synthesis processing module 740converts the text string to an audible speech output. Speech synthesisprocessing module 740 uses any appropriate speech synthesis technique inorder to generate speech outputs from text, including, but not limited,to concatenative synthesis, unit selection synthesis, diphone synthesis,domain-specific synthesis, formant synthesis, articulatory synthesis,hidden Markov model (HMM) based synthesis, and sinewave synthesis. Insome examples, speech synthesis processing module 740 is configured tosynthesize individual words based on phonemic strings corresponding tothe words. For example, a phonemic string is associated with a word inthe generated dialogue response. The phonemic string is stored inmetadata associated with the word. Speech synthesis processing module740 is configured to directly process the phonemic string in themetadata to synthesize the word in speech form.

In some examples, instead of (or in addition to) using speech synthesisprocessing module 740, speech synthesis is performed on a remote device(e.g., the server system 108), and the synthesized speech is sent to theuser device for output to the user. For example, this can occur in someimplementations where outputs for a digital assistant are generated at aserver system. And because server systems generally have more processingpower or resources than a user device, it is possible to obtain higherquality speech outputs than would be practical with client-sidesynthesis.

Additional details on digital assistants can be found in the U.S.Utility application Ser. No. 12/987,982, entitled “Intelligent AutomatedAssistant,” filed Jan. 10, 2011, and U.S. Utility application Ser. No.13/251,088, entitled “Generating and Processing Task Items ThatRepresent Tasks to Perform,” filed Sep. 30, 2011, the entire disclosuresof which are incorporated herein by reference.

4. Process for Providing an Output Formatted Based on an Output Mode

FIG. 8A illustrates system 800 for providing outputs to a user formattedbased on an output mode in accordance with some embodiments. System 800may be implemented, for example, using one or more electronic devicesimplementing a digital assistant (e.g., digital assistant system 700).In some embodiments, system 800 is implemented using a client-serversystem (e.g., system 100), and the functions of system 800 are dividedup in any manner between one or more server devices (e.g., DA server106) and a client device. In other embodiments, the functions of system800 are divided up between one or more servers and multiple clientdevices (e.g., a mobile phone and a smart watch). Thus, while somefunctions of system 800 are described herein as being performed byparticular devices of a client-server system, it will be appreciatedthat system 800 is not so limited. In other examples, system 800 isimplemented using only a client device (e.g., user device 104) or onlymultiple client devices. In system 800, some functions are, optionally,combined, the order of some functions is, optionally, changed, and somefunctions are, optionally, omitted. In some examples, additionalfunctions may be performed in combination with the described functionsof system 800.

System 800 may be implemented using hardware, software, or a combinationof hardware and software to carry out the principles discussed herein.Further, system 800 is exemplary, and thus system 800 can have more orfewer components than shown, can combine two or more components, or canhave a different configuration or arrangement of the components.Further, although the below discussion describes functions beingperformed at a single component of system 800, it is to be understoodthat such functions can be performed at other components of system 800and that such functions can be performed at more than one component ofsystem 800. System 800 may be used to implement method 900 as describedwith respect to FIG. 9 , below.

Referring to FIG. 8A, in response to determining that system 800 is toprovide an output to a user of an electronic device (e.g., device 104),system 800 obtains output data structure 802. For example, an outputprovided by system 800 may include a result (e.g., of a task or queryfrom a user), a status (e.g., success, failure, or pending status), or arequest for clarification (e.g., a query to the user).

In some embodiments, the output to be provided by system 800 is adigital assistant output (e.g., a response generated using digitalassistant system 700, described above). For example, an electronicdevice implementing system 800 receives a user input requesting agrocery list, such as a spoken user input (“Hey Siri, what's on mygrocery list?”), a touch input on a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., a tapselecting a “Show Grocery List” suggestion affordance), or the like.Accordingly, when the digital assistant retrieves the requested grocerylist, system 800 determines that an output including the grocery list isto be provided to the user, and obtains output data structure 802.

Output data structure 802 is used to format an output according tovarious output modes. For example, the contents of the grocery listretrieved by the digital assistant can be delivered to the user audibly(e.g., read aloud as dialog from the digital assistant), visually (e.g.,displayed on a display of an electronic device), or in a mixed mode(e.g., using both audio and visual outputs). Output data structure 802acts as a pattern to format the contents of the grocery list foraudible, visual, or mixed-mode delivery.

As illustrated in FIG. 8A, output data structure 802 represents apattern for a result set output, where multiple items of information arepresented to a user as a set. For example, output data structure 802 canbe used to output result sets such as a grocery list, a packing list, ato-do list, or another list created by a user and retrieved by a digitalassistant. As another example, output data structure 802 can be used todeliver the results of other digital assistant tasks such as a newsbriefing (e.g., a result set of news briefing items), a search (e.g., aresult set of search results), or the like. As output data structure 802can be applied to format an output for many different results,regardless of the domain of the use case (e.g., list retrieval vs. newsbriefing) or content (e.g., grocery items vs. to-do items), output datastructure 802 is considered domain independent.

In some embodiments, output data structure 802 is selected from a set ofoutput data structures. For example, the set of output data structuresmay include result patterns (e.g., simple result, detailed result,result set, multi-level result set, table set, and variable result set),status patterns (e.g., success status, error status, cancelled status,and progress status), and clarification patterns (e.g., yes/noclarification, open-ended clarification, simple disambiguationclarification, and detailed disambiguation clarification). As outputdata structures included in the set are, like output data structure 802,domain independent, the set can be relatively small in size while beingapplicable to format most outputs, including outputs from numerousdigital assistant and electronic device tasks (e.g., use cases). Forexample, the simple result data structure may be used to format digitalassistant responses to requests such as “When is Memorial Day,” “Howdeep is Lake Michigan,” “Who directed CODA,” and so forth. As anotherexample, the open-ended clarification data structure may be used toformat follow-up requests from a digital assistant, such as “What daywould you like to make a reservation for?,” “What music do you want toplay?,” “When should I set an alarm for?,” and the like.

In some embodiments, output data structure 802 is selected from the setof output data structures based on a task flow. For example, in responseto receiving a user input requesting a grocery list (e.g., “Hey Siri,what's on my grocery list?”), a digital assistant may initiate a taskflow for retrieving and providing the grocery list. The digitalassistant task flow may indicate that a result set pattern should beused to output the grocery list.

Output data structure 802 includes pattern components for the result setoutput. The pattern components represent domain-independent “buildingblocks” that can be assembled in various configurations to generate aformatted output. In some embodiments, the pattern components includeaudio pattern components 820. For example, intro 821, window intro 823,list item statement 825, continuation prompt 827, and conclusion 829 mayinclude templates to format one or more lines of dialog (e.g.,synthesized speech of a digital assistant) included in an audio ormixed-mode output. In some embodiments, the pattern components includevisual pattern components 830. For example, header 831, subheader 833,item 835, and button 837 may include templates to format one or moredisplay elements (e.g., text, images, affordances, or the like) includedin a visual or mixed-mode output. In some embodiments, the visualpattern components include multiple versions of a template, eachcorresponding to a different device type (e.g., a mobile phone, smartwatch, smart glasses, television, laptop, or the like), in order toformat the display elements for that device type's displayspecifications.

The pattern components of output data structure 802 are organized intooutput groups 810. In some embodiments, output groups 810 representgroups of pattern components that serve equivalent or similar roles inconveying an output, including pattern components for different modes ofoutput (e.g., audio vs. visual). For example, output group 811 includesan audio pattern component, intro 821, and a visual pattern component,header 831, that both serve to initially contextualize the output. Asanother example, output group 815 includes an audio pattern component,list item statement 825, and a visual pattern component, item 835, thatboth serve to deliver the contents of a result set (e.g., the listitems). In some embodiments, some of output groups 810 do not includepattern components for all modes of output. For example, output group819 includes the audio pattern component conclusion 829, but does notinclude an equivalent visual pattern component.

In some embodiments, some of output groups 810 are required, such thatat least one pattern component from the required output group must beincluded in a proper output. For instance, at least one of intro 821 andheader 831 from output group 811 and at least one of list item statement825 and item 835 from output group 815 must be included in a properresult set output. In some embodiments, some of output groups 810 areoptional. For example, not all result set outputs will include patterncomponents from output group 813, output group 817, or output group 819.

In some embodiments, output data structure 802 includes one or moreinput data fields for one or more sets of output data received from atask flow (e.g., a digital assistant task flow). As noted above, outputdata structure 802 is domain independent, so the task flow provides theactual domain-specific (e.g., use case and content-specific) outputdata. For example, the digital assistant task flow for retrieving a listmay pass a title (e.g., “Shopping List”) and list items (e.g., eggs,apples, butter, bread, cream cheese, maple syrup, tomatoes, andmushrooms) of the retrieved grocery list to output data structure 802.

In some embodiments, the one or more input data fields correspond to oneor more of output groups 810. As noted above, output groups 810represent groups of pattern components that serve equivalent or similarroles in conveying an output; therefore, when output data structure 802receives a set of output data corresponding to a particular outputgroup, the set of output data can be efficiently used to populate any ofthe pattern components included in the particular output group. Forexample, a task flow can pass unformatted, mode-independent output datato output data structure 802 (e.g., the list items), rather thanformatted, mode-specific data (e.g., a set of list items formatted foraudio output and/or a set of list items formatted for visual output).

FIGS. 8B-8G illustrate outputs (e.g., 842A, 842B, 842C, and 842D)generated by system 800 using output data structure 802. For example,outputs 842A, 842B, 842C, and 842D may be result outputs for a digitalassistant task flow for retrieving a list, where the result of the taskflow is a grocery list including grocery list items eggs, apples,butter, bread, cream cheese, maple syrup, tomatoes, and mushrooms.

The outputs illustrated in FIGS. 8B-8G (e.g., 842A, 842B, 842C, and842D) are formatted according to various output modes. In someembodiments, output modes include modes of varying degrees of audiooutput and visual output used to convey the contents of a response(e.g., a digital assistant response). For example, the output modes mayinclude an audio-only mode, where content is only delivered audibly; anaudio-forward mode, where full audible content is delivered to the useralong with supporting visual content; a visual-forward mode, where fullvisual content is delivered to the user along with supporting audiblecontent; and a visual-only mode (e.g., silent mode), where content isonly delivered visually.

Output data structure 802 thus defines configurations of patterncomponents to be included in an output of each of the various outputmodes (e.g., visual-only, visual-forward, audio-forward, andaudio-only). For example, referring momentarily to FIG. 8A, output datastructure 802 defines which pattern components of a given output groupare toggled “on” or “off” for a particular degree (e.g., full vs.supporting) of audio or visual output.

System 800 delivers the output using device 840. In some embodiments,device 840 is capable of delivering both audio pattern components 820and visual pattern components 830. For example, as illustrated in FIGS.8B-8G, device 840 is a mobile phone with both a built-in display and abuilt-in speaker, which can be used to deliver outputs in any of thevarious output modes (e.g., audio-only, audio-forward, visual-forward,or visual-only). In some embodiments, the delivery of audio patterncomponents 820 and visual pattern components 830 may be distributedacross multiple devices, such as delivering audio pattern components 820using headphones or a smart speaker or delivering visual patterncomponents 830 using an external monitor or a television. In someembodiments, the delivery of audio pattern components 820 includessynthesizing speech to output lines of dialog, for instance, using adigital assistant of device 840 (e.g., digital assistant system 700).

In some embodiments, system 800 selects the output mode by determining adegree of visual output (e.g., full visual or supporting visual) and adegree of audio output (e.g., full audio or supporting audio)appropriate for the output. In some embodiments, the degree of visualoutput may be determined relative to the degree of audio output (e.g.,the greater the degree of visual output, the lesser the degree of audiooutput, and vice versa). For example, in the visual-forward mode, a fulldegree of visual output is provided with a supporting degree of audiooutput, and in the audio-forward mode, a full degree of audio output isprovided with a supporting degree of visual output.

In some embodiments, system 800 selects the output mode based on contextinformation associated with device 840, such as the type of the deviceor devices delivering the output, user attention context, devicesettings, and so forth. For example, if device setting contextinformation indicates that the user has engaged a “silent” mode ofdevice 840, a visual-only mode is appropriate to maintain silence. Asanother example, if the user attention context information indicatesuser is looking at a display of device 840 and wearing connectedheadphones connected to device 840, a display-forward mode isappropriate, as the user will be able to see the full visual content andhear the supporting audio content.

FIG. 8B illustrates delivering an output in a visual-only (e.g., silent)output mode according to output data structure 802. For example, thevisual-only mode may have been selected based on context informationindicating that the user is currently in a library and is interactingwith the display of device 840. Referring momentarily to FIG. 8A,according to output data structure 802, a full degree of visual outputincludes the visual pattern components header 831 and item 835.Accordingly, output 842A includes header display element 831A (ShoppingList) and item display element 835A (eggs, apples, butter, bread, creamcheese, maple syrup, tomatoes, mushrooms) displayed on the display ofdevice 840. As the output mode is a visual-only (e.g., silent) mode,output 842A does not include any audio output components.

In some embodiments, the pattern components included in the output(e.g., header 831 and item 835) are populated with sets of output datacorresponding to the respective output groups for the pattern components(e.g., output group 811 and output group 815, respectively) to generateoutput components for delivery (e.g., header display element 831A anditem display element 835A, respectively). In some embodiments, the setsof data are received from a task flow (e.g., using one or more datainput fields of output data structure 802). For example, as illustratedin FIG. 8B, item 835 is populated with the received grocery list itemseggs, apples, butter, bread, cream cheese, maple syrup, tomatoes, andmushrooms to generate item display element 835A.

FIG. 8C illustrates delivering an output in a visual-forward output modeaccording to output data structure 802. For example, the visual-forwardmode may have been selected based on context information indicating thatthe user is interacting with the display of device 840, but is alsointeracting with a digital assistant of device 840 using voice control.Referring momentarily to FIG. 8A, according to output data structure802, a full degree of visual output includes the visual patterncomponents header 831 and item 835, and a supporting degree of audiooutput includes the audio pattern component intro 821. Accordingly, likeoutput 842A, output 842B includes a header display element 831B(Shopping List) and item display element 835B (eggs, apples, butter,bread, cream cheese, maple syrup, tomatoes, mushrooms), displayed on thedisplay of device 840. Additionally, output 842B includes supportingaudio content, intro dialog 821B (“Here's your Shopping List”), forinstance, delivered as audible synthesized speech of the digitalassistant.

As discussed with respect to FIG. 8B, in some embodiments, the patterncomponents included in the output (e.g., intro 821, header 831, and item835) are populated with sets of output data corresponding to therespective output groups for the pattern components to generate theoutput components for delivery. In embodiments where the sets of dataare received from a task flow using the one or more data fieldscorresponding to one or more of output groups 810, the same set of datais used to populate each of the pattern components included in thecorresponding output group. For example, both the audio patterncomponent intro 821 and the visual pattern component header 831 arepopulated with the output data corresponding to output group 811 (e.g.,the received list name, “Shopping List”), thus generating both headerdisplay element 831B (“Shopping List”) and intro dialog 821B (“Here'syour Shopping List”) with the same data.

FIGS. 8D-8E illustrate delivering an output in an audio-forward outputmode according to output data structure 802. For example, theaudio-forward mode may have been selected based on context informationindicating that the user is currently driving, with device 840 placed ina hands-free mode. Referring momentarily to FIG. 8A, according to outputdata structure 802, a full degree of audio output can include some orall of the audio pattern components intro 821, window intro 823, listitem statement 825, continuation prompt 827, and conclusion 829; and asupporting degree of visual output can include some or all of the visualpattern components subheader 833, item 835, and button 837. In someembodiments, included the pattern components may be split acrossmultiple output turns. For example, pattern components from a firstsubset of output groups are included a first-turn output 842C, andpattern components from a second subset of output groups are included ina second-turn output 842D.

In some embodiments, the subsets of output groups for each of themultiple turns are determined based on the output mode and/or a settingof output data structure 802. For example, output data structure 802includes a maximum window size setting for audio modes, defining amaximum number of items from the result set that should be read out loudin a single turn. If the total number of items from the result setexceeds the window size setting, the output of output group 815 is splitbetween multiple turns. For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 8D-8E, thewindow size setting for output data structure 802 is five items, so theoutput of the eight-item grocery list is split between output 842C andoutput 842D. Additionally, pattern components from output group 813,output group 817, and output group 819 can be included in the subsets ofoutput groups as appropriate to frame each turn of the output.

As illustrated in FIG. 8D, output 842C (e.g., the turn 1 output) thusincludes pattern components from a first subset of output groupsincluding output group 811, output group 813, output group 815, andoutput group 817. Specifically, output 842C includes intro dialog 821C(“Here's your Shopping List”), window intro dialog 823C (“The first fiveitems are”), list item statement dialog 825C (“eggs, apples, butter,bread, and cream cheese.”), and continuation prompt dialog 827C (“Wouldyou like to hear more?”). Additionally, output 842C includes supportingvisual content, list display element 835C (eggs, apples, butter, bread,cream cheese) and button display element 837C (More).

In some embodiments, as discussed above, some pattern componentsincluded in the output (e.g., intro 821, list item statement 825, anditem 835) are populated with sets of output data corresponding to therespective output groups for the pattern components to generate theoutput components for delivery. In some embodiments, some patterncomponents included in the output (e.g., window intro 823, list itemstatement 825, and item 835) are populated based on a setting of outputdata structure 802. For example, list item statement dialog 825C andlist display element 835C each include the first five items (e.g., afive-item window) of the output data corresponding to output group 815(e.g., the grocery list). As another example, window intro 823 ispopulated with the window size (e.g., “five”) to generate window introdialog 823C (“The first five items are”).

As noted above, in order to frame output 842C as a first turn of amulti-turn output, output 842C includes audio pattern component windowintro 823 from output group 813, audio pattern component continuationprompt 827 from output group 817, and visual pattern component button837 from output group 817. Window intro 823 provides the user with aninitial indication that the result set output will be split betweenmultiple turns. Continuation prompt 827 and button 837 indicate how theuser can proceed to the next turn of output (e.g., output 842D). Forexample, the user can provide a speech input (e.g., “Yes,” “Okay,” “No”)in response to continuation prompt dialog 827C (“Would you like to hearmore?”), or the user can use a touch input to select button displayelement 837C (More).

As illustrated in FIG. 8E, output 842D (e.g., the turn 2 output)includes pattern components from a second subset of output groupsincluding output group 813, output group 815, and output group 819.Specifically, output 842D includes window intro dialog 823D (“The lastthree are”), list item statement dialog 825D (“maple syrup, tomatoes,and mushrooms.”), and conclusion dialog 829D (“That's everything”).Additionally, output 842C includes supporting visual content, listdisplay element 835D (maple syrup, tomatoes, mushrooms). In someembodiments, output 842D is provided in response to receiving a userinput, for example, a speech input with an affirmative response (e.g.,“Yes,” “Okay”) to continuation prompt dialog 827C or a touch inputselection of button display element 837C (More).

In some embodiments, the output groups included in the second subset(turn 2) overlap with the output groups included in the first subset(turn 1), and the pattern components included in the second-turn output(e.g., 842D) overlap with the pattern components included in thefirst-turn output (e.g., 842C). That is, the same pattern component maybe used to generate multiple instances of output components to includein the multiple output turns. For example, the audio pattern componentwindow intro 823 is used to generate both a first instance, window introdialog 823C (“The first five items are”), and a second instance, windowintro dialog 823D (“The last three are”), of the output component.

FIGS. 8F-8G illustrate delivering an output in an audio-only output modeaccording to output data structure 802. For example, the audio-only modemay have been selected based on context information indicating that theuser is currently on a run and not interacting with the display ofdevice 840. As with FIGS. 8D-8E, a full degree of audio output caninclude some or all of the audio pattern components intro 821, windowintro 823, list item statement 825, continuation prompt 827, andconclusion 829, which may be split across multiple output turns. Forexample, pattern components from a first subset of output groups areincluded a first-turn output 842E, and pattern components from a secondsubset of output groups are included in a second-turn output 842F.

As illustrated in FIG. 8F, output 842E (e.g., the turn 1 output) thusincludes pattern components from a first subset of output groupsincluding output group 811, output group 813, output group 815, andoutput group 817, selected and populated as described above.Specifically, output 842E includes intro dialog 821E (“Here's yourShopping List”), window intro dialog 823E (“The first five items are”),list item statement dialog 825E (“eggs, apples, butter, bread, and creamcheese.”), and continuation prompt dialog 827E (“Would you like to hearmore?”), for instance, delivered as audible synthesized speech of thedigital assistant. As the output mode is an audio-only mode, output 842Edoes not include any visual output components.

As illustrated in FIG. 8G, output 842F (e.g., the turn 2 output)includes pattern components from a second subset of output groupsincluding output group 813, output group 815, and output group 819,selected and populated as described above. Specifically, output 842Fincludes window intro dialog 823F (“The last three are”), list itemstatement dialog 825F (“maple syrup, tomatoes, and mushrooms.”), andconclusion dialog 829F (“That's everything”). In some embodiments,output 842D is provided in response to receiving a user input, forexample, a speech input with an affirmative response (e.g., “Yes,”“Okay”) to continuation prompt dialog 827E.

The operations described above with reference to FIGS. 8A-8G areoptionally implemented by components depicted in FIGS. 1-4, 6A-6B, and7A-7C. For example, the operations of system 800 may be implemented byone or more electronic devices (e.g., 104, 122, 200, 400, 600, 840) suchas one implementing system 700 It would be clear to a person havingordinary skill in the art how other processes are implemented based onthe components depicted in FIGS. 1-4, 6A-6B, and 7A-7C.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating method 900 for providing outputsto a user formatted based on an output mode in accordance with someembodiments. Method 900 may be performed using one or more electronicdevices (e.g., device 104, device 200, device 600, device 840) with oneor more processors and memory. In some embodiments, method 900 isperformed using a client-server system, with the operations of method900 divided up in any manner between the client device(s) (e.g., 104,200, 600, 840) and the server. Some operations in method 900 are,optionally, combined, the orders of some operations are, optionally,changed, and some operations are, optionally, omitted.

At block 902, an output mode is selected. For example, an electronicdevice (or a suite of multiple electronic devices) may be able toproduce visual outputs (e.g., content displayed on a display, such as amonitor or touch-sensitive screen) and/or audio outputs (e.g., dialog,sounds, and/or music played through speakers or headphones).Accordingly, in some embodiments, available output modes include notonly an audio-only mode and a visual-only (e.g., silent) mode, but alsomixed modes, such as an audio-forward mode (e.g., primarily audiooutput, with supporting visual content) and/or a visual-forward mode(e.g., primarily visual output, with supporting audio content).

In some embodiments, selecting the output mode is performed based oncontext information associated with the electronic device(s) performingmethod 900. For example, context information associated with theelectronic device(s) may include sensor data, device connectivity data,location data, movement data, digital assistant session context, devicesettings, device type, application data, and/or the like. Accordingly,in some embodiments, method 900 can select the output mode based on whatwould be most appropriate for the user's current situation.

In some embodiments, device type information may indicate a modecapability of the device, such as whether the device has or is connectedto a display (e.g., a touch sensitive display, a TV, etc.) capable ofdisplaying visual content, or whether the device has or is connected toan audio output device (e.g., headphones, speakers, etc.) capable ofplaying back audio content. For example, a smart speaker-type devicewithout a display may only support an audio-only mode, or may requireconnectivity to an additional device (e.g., a mobile phone such asdevice 840) in order to support other modes. In some embodiments, devicetype information may indicate a preferred output mode for a devicecategory. For example, a smart TV-type device may generally use avisual-forward or visual output mode, even if the TV is capable ofoutputting audio.

In some embodiments, at block 904, selecting the output mode based oncontext information includes determining whether attention criteria aresatisfied by the context information. In some embodiments, the attentioncriteria may include whether the user is looking at a display of theelectronic device (e.g., using gaze or head-orientation detectiontechniques; using recent interaction data for a touch-sensitive display;etc.), whether the user is listening to the electronic device (e.g.,using sensor information for connected headphones; using recentinteraction data for a microphone; etc.); whether the user is engaged inan activity (e.g., using location data, movement data, application data,etc.); and so forth.

For example, determining whether attention criteria are satisfied mayinclude determining that the device is a vehicle interface-type device,and that the vehicle is currently moving. If the vehicle is currentlymoving (e.g., the user is driving), an audio-forward or audio-only modemay be selected to avoid diverting the user's attention from driving toa look at a display. As another example, location data, movement data,and application data (e.g., of a fitness application) may indicate thatthe user is currently engaged in a workout and wearing connectedheadphones, which indicates that an audio-forward or audio-only mode maybe most appropriate.

In some embodiments, selecting the output mode includes, at block 906,determining a degree of visual output and, at block 908, determining adegree of audio output. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 8A, theoutput may be provided with full, supporting, or no audio content, andfull, supporting, or no visual content. In some embodiments, the degreeof visual output is determined relative to the degree of audio output(e.g., a sliding scale of visual to audio output). For example, asillustrated in FIGS. 8A-8G, when a full degree of audio output isselected, either supporting or no visual content is provided, and when afull degree of visual output is selected, either supporting or no audiocontent is provided. In some embodiments, the degrees of visual andaudio output may be determined based on the attention criteria, suchthat a user paying attention to a display may be provided with a fullerdegree of visual content, while a user not paying attention to a displaymay be provided with a fuller degree of audio content.

In some embodiments, depending on the output mode selected (e.g., thedegree of audio and/or visual output that would be appropriate for theuser's current situation), the formatting of the output will differ.That is, in a multimodal output system, the same information can beconveyed to the user in a variety of ways. For example, the rawinformation to be output (e.g., a forecast of 72° and sunny) may beformatted as dialog to be delivered audibly as synthesized speech of adigital assistant (e.g., a full, conversational sentence, such as “Todaywill be 72° and sunny”) or as text, images, or other visual elements tobe displayed (e.g., a widget displaying the temperature 72° as text anda sun icon).

At block 910, in accordance with a determination that an output is to beprovided by the electronic device(s), an output data structure for theoutput is obtained. For example, the output to be provided to a user mayinclude a task result, a request for clarification (e.g., disambiguationrequest), and/or a status update (e.g., a notification of task success,task failure, or pending task status).

In some embodiments, the determination that an output is to be providedby the electronic device(s) is received from a digital assistant of theelectronic device(s) (e.g., digital assistant system 700). For example,a user may invoke a digital assistant to perform a task, such as sendinga message (e.g., “Hey Siri, text John that I'm on my way”), answering aquestion, providing a weather forecast, searching for nearbyrestaurants, retrieving a grocery list, or the like. As described abovewith respect to digital assistant system 700, the digital assistantprocesses the user request and initiates a task flow for the task. Atcertain points in the task flow, the task flow will indicate that anoutput is to be provided, such as the result of the task (e.g., theanswer to the question, the weather forecast, a list of nearbyrestaurants, or the grocery list), a request for clarification (e.g.,asking which “John” the user would like to text), or a status update(e.g., indicating that a message was successfully sent, or that the taskfailed).

In some embodiments, the output data structure represents a pattern usedto format the contents of the output (e.g., the result, clarification,or status) for delivery according to various output modes (e.g.,audio-only, audio-forward, visual-forward, or visual-only). Accordingly,in some embodiments, the output data structure (e.g., pattern) is domainindependent, as the output data structure can be applied to outputresults, clarifications, and statuses for many different use cases(e.g., tasks) and types of content. For example, the same output datastructure can be applied to format a weather forecast for Los Angeles,CA or a weather forecast for Milwaukee, WI (e.g., content agnostic). Asanother example, the same output data structure can be applied to formata list of nearby restaurants from a search task or a grocery list froman information retrieval task (e.g., use case agnostic).

In some embodiments, the output data structure is obtained (e.g.,selected) from a set of output data structures. For example, the set ofoutput data structures may include result patterns (e.g., simple result,detailed result, result set, multi-level result set, table set, andvariable result set), status patterns (e.g., success status, errorstatus, cancelled status, and progress status), and clarificationpatterns (e.g., yes/no clarification, open-ended clarification, simpledisambiguation clarification, and detailed disambiguationclarification). As output data structures included in the set are domainindependent, the set can be relatively small in size, while still beingapplicable to numerous different output domains (e.g., different usecases and contents). For example, the simple result data structure maybe used to format digital assistant responses to requests such as “Whenis Memorial Day,” “How deep is Lake Michigan,” “Who directed CODA,” andso forth. As another example, the open-ended clarification datastructure may be used to format follow-up requests from a digitalassistant, such as “What day would you like to make a reservation for?,”“What music do you want to play?,” “When should I set an alarm for?,”and the like.

In some embodiments, the output data structure is selected from the setof output data structures based on a task flow. In some embodiments, thetask flow includes logic for selecting an appropriate output datastructure for different states and steps of the task flow. For example,in response to receiving a user input requesting to send a message(e.g., “Hey Siri, text John that I'm on my way”), a digital assistantmay initiate a task flow for sending a message. If the task flow forsending a message requires more information to proceed, the task flowmay indicate that a clarification output data structure should beselected (e.g., a simple disambiguation clarification to ask the user toselect John's work number or personal number, or a yes/no clarificationto ask the user if “John Doe” is the intended “John”). If the task flowindicates that the message has been successfully sent, the task flow mayindicate that a status output data structure should be selected (e.g., asuccess status to inform the user the message has been sent).

The output data structure obtained in block 910 includes one or moreoutput groups (e.g., output groups 810), each of which includes one ormore pattern components (e.g., audio pattern components 820, visualpattern components 830). In some embodiments, the one or more patterncomponents represent multimodal “building blocks” (e.g., templates) thatcan be populated with information and assembled in variousconfigurations to generate a formatted output. For example, a simpleresult output data structure may include audio output components such asa statement (e.g., “Iza Ramen is 1 mile away and rated four stars onYelp.”) and/or a disambiguation prompt (e.g., “Do you want to call orget directions?”), and visual output components such as a summary item(e.g., an informational widget about Iza Ramen) and/or a button area(e.g., with buttons labeled “Call” or “Directions”).

In some embodiments, the one or more pattern components include at leastone audio pattern component. For example, an audio pattern component mayinclude a line of dialog (e.g., synthesized speech), a sound, music, orthe like. In some embodiments, the audio pattern components include oneor more templates for generating an audio output component. For example,for a result set output data structure such as the example illustratedin FIGS. 8A-8G, the audio pattern component intro 821 may include dialogtemplates (e.g., scripts) such as “Here's your $list_title:” which canbe used to generate output dialog such as “Here's your Shopping List:”or “Here's your To-Do List:” (e.g., for $list_title variable values“Shopping List” or “To-Do List”). In some embodiments, an audio patterncomponent may include multiple template options, such as alternativedialog templates “Here's what I found:” or “Here you go:” for intro 821.

In some embodiments, the one or more pattern components include at leastone visual pattern component. For example, a visual pattern componentmay include displayed text, images, user interface affordances (e.g.,buttons, sliders, or links), or other display elements (e.g., lines,shapes, bullets, etc.). In some embodiments, the visual patterncomponents include one or more templates for generating a visual outputcomponent. For example, for a result set output data structure such asthe example illustrated in FIGS. 8A-8G, the visual pattern componentitem 835 may include visual templates for displaying a list, such as thehorizontal-line delineated text list illustrated in FIG. 8B (e.g., itemdisplay element 835A). In some embodiments, a visual pattern componentmay include multiple template options, such as alternative visualtemplates for displaying item 835 (e.g., the result set) as a text block(e.g., a paragraph), a table, a visualizer, or the like. In someembodiments, a visual pattern component may include multiple versions ofa template, each corresponding to a different device type (e.g., amobile phone, smart watch, smart glasses, television, laptop, or thelike), in order to format the display elements for that device type'sdisplay specifications. For example, while the contents (e.g.,information and display elements) of a visual pattern component remainthe same, a version of the visual pattern component templatecorresponding to a mobile phone-type device may arrange the contents asa partial-screen banner, while a version of the visual pattern componenttemplate corresponding to a smart watch-type device may arrange thecontents as a full-screen display.

As noted above, the pattern components of the output data structureobtained in block 910 are organized into the one or more output groups.In some embodiments, the one or more output groups represent groups ofpattern components that serve equivalent or similar roles in conveyingan output, including pattern components for different modes of output(e.g., audio vs. visual). For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 8A-8G,the pattern components of output group 811, the audio pattern componentintro 821 (e.g., “Here's your shopping list”) and the visual patterncomponent header 831 (e.g., the text header “Shopping List”), both serveto initially contextualize the result. As another example, in a simpleresult output data structure, the disambiguation prompt (e.g., “Do youwant to call or get directions?”) and the button area (e.g., withbuttons labeled “Call” or “Directions”) are included in the same group,as both request user input on a potential follow-up task.

In some embodiments, at least a first output group of the one or moreoutput groups is required, such that at least one of the one or morepattern components included in the required output group must beincluded in a proper output. For instance, as illustrated in FIGS.8A-8G, at least one of the pattern components included in output group815 (list item statement 825 and item 835) must be included in a properresult set output. In some embodiments, at least a second output groupof the one or more output groups optional. For example, in the simpleresult output data structure, the output group including thedisambiguation prompt and the button area may be optional, and onlyincluded if a task flow indicates the possibility of a follow-up prompt.

In some embodiments, the output data structure includes an input datafield for one or more sets of output data received from a task flow. Forexample, because the output data structure is domain independent, thedomain-specific contents of the output (e.g., actual information to bedelivered to the user) can be passed to the output data structure from atask flow via the data fields, for instance, in the form of parameter orvariable values.

In some embodiments, the input data field corresponds to at least oneoutput group of the one or more output groups (e.g., such that thepattern components included in the corresponding output group arepopulated with the same task information or data). As noted above, insome embodiments, the one or more output groups represent groups ofpattern components that serve equivalent or similar roles in conveyingan output, so the same input data set can be efficiently used topopulate the pattern components of the group, rather than requiringseparate input data sets for each potential output mode or patterncomponent. For example, as discussed with respect to FIGS. 8A-8G, a taskflow for retrieving a list may pass the list title (“Shopping List”) toan input data field corresponding to output group 811 and the listcontents (eggs, apples, butter, etc.) to an input data fieldcorresponding to output group 815, which can then be formatted accordingto any (or all) of the pattern components included in those groups.

At block 912, based on the output mode (e.g., the output mode selectedat block 902), at least a first pattern component of at least a firstoutput group of the output data structure is selected to include in theoutput. In some embodiments, a determination is made whether the audiocomponent for the group, the visual component for the group, or bothshould be used in an output for the selected output mode (e.g.,audio-only, audio-forward, visual-forward, or visual-only). For example,an output group for a simple result output data structure may include a“statement” audio pattern component and a “summary item” visual patterncomponent. Based on a visual-only output mode, the summary item visualpattern component (e.g., an informational widget about Iza Ramen) isselected from the output group and the statement is omitted. Likewise,based on an audio-only output mode, the statement audio patterncomponent (e.g., dialog such as “Iza Ramen is 1 mile away and rated fourstars on Yelp.”) is selected to include in the output. For avisual-forward or audio-forward output mode, both pattern components inthe group may be selected for inclusion in the output (e.g., providingsome redundancy in the output, where the information is conveyed bothvisually and audibly).

In some embodiments, if the selected first pattern component includesmultiple versions of a template, this determination includes selectingwhich template should be used. For example, a task flow for retrieving alist may specify whether to use an item display element template (e.g.,a displayed list, such as item display element 835A illustrated in FIG.8B), a text block display element template, or a table display elementtemplate to output a list of items in a result set output. As anotherexample, a specific version of a pattern component template may bechosen based on the sets of output data received via the one or moreinput data fields, such as selecting the dialog script “Here's your$list_title:” when the sets of output data include a value for thevariable $list_title, and selecting the dialog script “Here you go:”when no $list_title value is received. As another example, a task flowmay include logic for selecting a template version, such as onlyincluding an attribution statement (e.g., “According to the WeatherChannel . . . ”) once every five times a particular audio patterncomponent is used.

In some embodiments, the first output group is included in a firstsubset of output groups selected from the one or more output groups ofthe output data structure. In some embodiments, the first subset ofoutput groups represents an entire output, and include all of therequired output groups and any additional optional output groups (e.g.,optional output groups designated for inclusion by a task flow, oroptional output groups for which a set of input data was provided by thetask flow). For example, as illustrated in FIG. 8B, output 842A includesonly the subset of output groups including output group 811 and outputgroup 815, and represents a complete output. In some embodiments, thefirst set of output groups represents a first-turn output of amulti-turn output, and may not include all of the required output groups(e.g., as later turns of the multi-turn output will complete therequirements of the output data structure). For example, as illustratedin FIG. 8D, output 842C includes only the subset of output groupsincluding output group 811, output group 813, output group 815, andoutput group 817.

In some embodiments, the first subset of output groups is selected fromthe output data structure based on the output mode. For example, asillustrated in FIGS. 8B-8C, in visual-only and visual-forward outputmodes, information can be presented with relatively little framing andremain clear to the user, so the first subset of output groups for thesemodes includes only output group 811 and output group 815. As anotherexample, as illustrated in FIGS. 8D and 8F, in audio-forward andaudio-only output modes, more dialog is included to contextualize theoutput for the user, so the first subset of output groups for thesemodes further include output group 813 and output group 817 (e.g., tocreate a more conversational, easy-to-understand dialog).

In some embodiments, the first subset of output groups is selected fromthe output data structure based on a setting of the output datastructure. In some embodiments, a task flow may include customizedsettings for which pattern components of an optional output group aretoggled “on” and “off” for given output modes (e.g., customized settingsfor the checked and unchecked pattern components shown for output datastructure 802 in FIG. 8A). For example, a task flow for deliveringrestaurant information may specify that both a required informationoutput group and an optional follow-up task output group from a simpleresult output data structure should be included, since a resultdelivering restaurant information will frequently result in a follow-uptask request (e.g., to call the restaurant or to get directions to therestaurant) from the user.

In some embodiments, the setting of the output data structure used toselect the first subset of output groups is determined based on theoutput mode. For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 8D and 8F, in theaudio-only and audio-forward output modes, a window size setting is setto only five items, since reading a long list of items out loud canhinder user comprehension. Accordingly, since the window size for theoutput mode requires a multi-turn output (e.g., a first turn for thefirst five items and a second turn for the remaining three items in thegrocery list), the first subset of output groups incudes output group813 and output group 817 to frame the first-turn output in addition tothe required output groups 811 and 815. As another example, asillustrated in FIGS. 8B-8C, a window size setting for the visual-onlyand visual-forward output modes is greater than eight items.Accordingly, the first subset of output groups includes only outputgroup 811 and output group 815, since the entire contents of thosegroups (e.g., the list title and list contents) can be provided in asingle turn in the visual format.

In these embodiments, based on the output mode, at least one patterncomponent from each output group of the first subset of output groups,including the first pattern component from the first output group, isselected to include in the output. In some embodiments, only one patterncomponent is selected from each output group of the first subset ofoutput groups, such as for an output in an audio-only or visual-onlyoutput mode. In some embodiments, multiple pattern components may beselected from a single output group of the first subset of outputgroups, such as for an output in an audio-forward or visual-forward(e.g., mixed-mode) output mode. For example, as illustrated in FIGS.8B-8C, both output 842A and output 842B include output group 811, butoutput 842A for the visual-only mode includes only the visual patterncomponent header 831, while output 842B for the visual-forward modeincludes both header 831 and the audio pattern component intro 821.

In some embodiments, in addition to selecting a first subset of outputgroups (e.g., including the first output group), a second subset ofoutput groups is selected from the one or more output groups of theoutput data structure. For example, the second set of output groups mayrepresent a second-turn output of a multi-turn output, and may includeany remaining required output groups, any additional optional outputgroups, and/or any additional instances of the output groups included inthe first subset of output groups. As with the first subset of outputgroups, in some embodiments, the second subset of output groups isselected based on the output mode and/or a setting of the output datastructure.

In these embodiments, based on the output mode, at least one patterncomponent from each output group of the second subset of output groupsis selected to include in the output. In some embodiments, only onepattern component is selected from each output group of the secondsubset of output groups, such as for an output in an audio-only orvisual-only output mode. In some embodiments, multiple patterncomponents may be selected from a single output group of the secondsubset of output groups, such as for an output in an audio-forward orvisual-forward (e.g., mixed-mode) output mode.

Although these embodiments are described with respect to a first andsecond subset of output groups, it should be understood that amulti-turn output may include selecting a respective subset of outputgroups for each turn necessary to complete the multi-turn output (e.g.,a third, fourth, and fifth subset of output groups for third-, fourth-,and fifth-turn outputs).

At block 914, the output, including at least the first pattern componentof the first output group, is provided. For example, as illustrated inFIGS. 8A-8G, outputs 842A-842F are provided, each includingconfigurations of the grouped pattern components of output datastructure 802.

In some embodiments, providing the output includes, at block 916,providing a first output including each pattern component selected fromthe first subset of output groups. For example, as shown in FIG. 8B,output 842A is a first and only (e.g., complete) output, and includesthe pattern components header 831 (header display element 831A) and item835 (item display element 835A) from the first (and only) set of outputgroups (output group 811 and output group 815). As another example, asshown in FIG. 8D, output 842C is a first-turn output of a multi-turnoutput (e.g., as continued in FIG. 8E), and includes pattern componentsintro 821, header 831, window intro 823, list item statement 825, item835, continuation prompt 827, and button 837, from the first set ofoutput groups (output group 811, output group 813, output group 815, andoutput group 817).

In some embodiments, providing the output includes populating the firstpattern component of the first output group with output data for thefirst output group to generate a first output component, and deliveringthe first output component. For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 8D,templates included in audio pattern components intro 821, window intro823, list item statement 825, and continuation prompt 827 are populatedwith grocery list data to be output to the user to generate the audiooutput components intro dialog 821C (“Here's your Shopping List”),window intro dialog 823C (“The first five items are:”), list itemstatement dialog 825C (“eggs, apples, butter, bread, and cream cheese”),and continuation prompt dialog 827C (“Would you like to hear more?”),which are provided through a speaker or headphone of device 840.Likewise, templates included in visual pattern components item 835 andbutton 837 are populated with the grocery list data to be output to theuser to generate display elements item display element 835C and buttondisplay element 837C, which are displayed on the display of device 840.

In some embodiments, populating the first pattern component to generatethe first output component is performed based on a setting of the outputdata structure. In some embodiments, output data structure settings mayinclude which conjunction to use in a list (e.g., “and” or “or”), awindow size (e.g., how many items can be included in a single outputturn), or any other domain-independent formatting guidelines for audioor visual outputs. For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 8D-8G, audiopattern component window intro 823 may include the dialog script “The$ordinal $window_size items are:”, where the variable $window_size ispopulated based on the window size setting (e.g., “five,” “three”) andthe variable $ordinal is populated with the turn order (e.g., “first,”“last”). As another example, a multi-level result set output datastructure may include a setting for how to indent each level of a nestedlist in a visual output component. In some embodiments, populating thefirst pattern component to generate the first output component isperformed based on context information associated with the electronicdevice(s), such as using the device type (e.g., a mobile phone, smartwatch, smart glasses, television, laptop, or the like) to select acorresponding version of a template included in the first patterncomponent to populate.

In some embodiments, the output data for the first output group isreceived from a task flow. As noted above, output data structures andthe pattern components and output groups included within aredomain-independent, as they can be applied to format and deliver outputsfrom a variety of tasks and content. Accordingly, the actual informationto be output to the user (e.g., the output data used to populate theselected pattern components) is passed to the output data structure(e.g., via the one or more input data fields described above) from adomain-specific task flow, such as a task flow for a digital assistant.

For example, as described with respect to FIGS. 8A-8B, the visualpattern component item 835 is populated with the contents of the grocerylist (e.g., the output data for output group 815) received from a taskflow to generate the visual output component, item display element 835A.As another example, as described with respect to FIGS. 8A and 8C, theaudio pattern component intro 821 is populated with the list title(e.g., the output data for output group 811) received from the task flowto generate the audio output component, intro dialog 821B.

In some embodiments, a second pattern component of the first outputgroup is populated with the output data for the first output group togenerate a second output component, and the second output component isalso delivered. In some embodiments, the second pattern component is anadditional instance of the first pattern component (e.g., a second-turninstance of the same pattern component), and the output data for thefirst output group is subdivided between the two output components. Forexample, as illustrated in FIGS. 8D-8E, which illustrate multi-turnoutputs, the audio pattern component item statement 825 is populatedwith the contents of the grocery list not only to generate list itemstatement dialog 825C (e.g., the first output component), but also listitem statement dialog 825D (e.g., the second output component), eachincluding part of the contents of the grocery list (e.g., the outputdata for output group 815). In such embodiments, the second outputcomponent is delivered after the first output component is delivered(e.g., as part of a second output turn).

In some embodiments, the second pattern component is a different patterncomponent than the first pattern component (albeit still a patterncomponent from the first output group). For example, as illustrated inFIG. 8C, not only is the audio pattern component intro 821 populatedwith the grocery list title to generate intro dialog 821B (e.g., thefirst output component), but the visual pattern component header 831 isalso populated with the grocery list title to generate header displayelement 831B (e.g., the second output component). That is, in someembodiments, the output includes some redundancy across output modes,where both visual and audio output components are used to convey thesame information. In such embodiments, the second output component isdelivered in the same turn as the first output component (e.g., suchthat intro dialog 821B can be heard at the same time header displayelement 831B is being displayed).

Although these embodiments are described with respect to providing theoutput including at least the first pattern component of the firstoutput group, it should be understood that an output may include variousconfigurations of one or more pattern components from one or more outputgroups delivered across one or more turns.

In some embodiments, providing the output includes, at block 918,providing a second output including each pattern component selected fromthe second subset of output groups (e.g., populated with output data asdescribed above to generate the output components of the second output).For example, as shown in FIGS. 8E and 8G, the second output is asecond-turn output including each pattern component selected from outputgroups 813, 815, 817, and 819. In some embodiments, providing the secondoutput is performed in response to receiving a user input responding tothe first output. For example, as shown in FIGS. 8D-8G, output 842D andoutput 842F (e.g., the second-turn outputs) may only be delivered aftera user has responded in the affirmative to output 842C or 842E (e.g., byproviding a spoken output such as “Yes” or “Okay” or by selecting buttondisplay element 837C).

The operations described above with reference to FIG. 9 are optionallyimplemented by components depicted in FIGS. 1-4, 6A-6B, 7A-7C, and8A-8G. For example, the operations of method 900 may be implementedaccording to system 800, which may be implemented on one or moreelectronic devices, such as device 840. It would be clear to a personhaving ordinary skill in the art how other processes are implementedbased on the components depicted in FIGS. 1-4, 6A-6B, and 7A-7C.

In accordance with some implementations, a computer-readable storagemedium (e.g., a non-transitory computer readable storage medium) isprovided, the computer-readable storage medium storing one or moreprograms for execution by one or more processors of an electronicdevice, the one or more programs including instructions for performingany of the methods or processes described herein.

In accordance with some implementations, an electronic device (e.g., aportable electronic device) is provided that comprises means forperforming any of the methods or processes described herein.

In accordance with some implementations, an electronic device (e.g., aportable electronic device) is provided that comprises a processing unitconfigured to perform any of the methods or processes described herein.

In accordance with some implementations, an electronic device (e.g., aportable electronic device) is provided that comprises one or moreprocessors and memory storing one or more programs for execution by theone or more processors, the one or more programs including instructionsfor performing any of the methods or processes described herein.

The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has beendescribed with reference to specific embodiments. However, theillustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modificationsand variations are possible in view of the above teachings. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the techniques and their practical applications. Othersskilled in the art are thereby enabled to best utilize the techniquesand various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

Although the disclosure and examples have been fully described withreference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that variouschanges and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in theart. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as beingincluded within the scope of the disclosure and examples as defined bythe claims.

As described above, one aspect of the present technology is thegathering and use of data available from various sources to improve theprovision of an output formatted according to output mode. The presentdisclosure contemplates that in some instances, this gathered data mayinclude personal information data that uniquely identifies or can beused to contact or locate a specific person. Such personal informationdata can include demographic data, location-based data, telephonenumbers, email addresses, twitter IDs, home addresses, data or recordsrelating to a user's health or level of fitness (e.g., vital signsmeasurements, medication information, exercise information), date ofbirth, or any other identifying or personal information.

The present disclosure recognizes that the use of such personalinformation data, in the present technology, can be used to the benefitof users. For example, the personal information data can be used to helpselect the output mode, select the pattern components to include, orgenerate the formatted output. Accordingly, use of such personalinformation data guides appropriate formatting of an output for a user'scircumstances. Further, other uses for personal information data thatbenefit the user are also contemplated by the present disclosure. Forinstance, health and fitness data may be used to provide insights into auser's general wellness, or may be used as positive feedback toindividuals using technology to pursue wellness goals.

The present disclosure contemplates that the entities responsible forthe collection, analysis, disclosure, transfer, storage, or other use ofsuch personal information data will comply with well-established privacypolicies and/or privacy practices. In particular, such entities shouldimplement and consistently use privacy policies and practices that aregenerally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmentalrequirements for maintaining personal information data private andsecure. Such policies should be easily accessible by users, and shouldbe updated as the collection and/or use of data changes. Personalinformation from users should be collected for legitimate and reasonableuses of the entity and not shared or sold outside of those legitimateuses. Further, such collection/sharing should occur after receiving theinformed consent of the users. Additionally, such entities shouldconsider taking any needed steps for safeguarding and securing access tosuch personal information data and ensuring that others with access tothe personal information data adhere to their privacy policies andprocedures. Further, such entities can subject themselves to evaluationby third parties to certify their adherence to widely accepted privacypolicies and practices. In addition, policies and practices should beadapted for the particular types of personal information data beingcollected and/or accessed and adapted to applicable laws and standards,including jurisdiction-specific considerations. For instance, in the US,collection of or access to certain health data may be governed byfederal and/or state laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability andAccountability Act (HIPAA); whereas health data in other countries maybe subject to other regulations and policies and should be handledaccordingly. Hence different privacy practices should be maintained fordifferent personal data types in each country.

Despite the foregoing, the present disclosure also contemplatesembodiments in which users selectively block the use of, or access to,personal information data. That is, the present disclosure contemplatesthat hardware and/or software elements can be provided to prevent orblock access to such personal information data. For example, in the caseof automatic output formatting services, the present technology can beconfigured to allow users to select to “opt in” or “opt out” ofparticipation in the collection of personal information data duringregistration for services or anytime thereafter. In another example,users can select not to provide mood-associated data for automaticoutput formatting services. In yet another example, users can select tolimit the length of time mood-associated data is maintained or entirelyprohibit the development of a baseline mood profile. In addition toproviding “opt in” and “opt out” options, the present disclosurecontemplates providing notifications relating to the access or use ofpersonal information. For instance, a user may be notified upondownloading an app that their personal information data will be accessedand then reminded again just before personal information data isaccessed by the app.

Moreover, it is the intent of the present disclosure that personalinformation data should be managed and handled in a way to minimizerisks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use. Risk can beminimized by limiting the collection of data and deleting data once itis no longer needed. In addition, and when applicable, including incertain health related applications, data de-identification can be usedto protect a user's privacy. De-identification may be facilitated, whenappropriate, by removing specific identifiers (e.g., date of birth,etc.), controlling the amount or specificity of data stored (e.g.,collecting location data at a city level rather than at an addresslevel), controlling how data is stored (e.g., aggregating data acrossusers), and/or other methods.

Therefore, although the present disclosure broadly covers use ofpersonal information data to implement one or more various disclosedembodiments, the present disclosure also contemplates that the variousembodiments can also be implemented without the need for accessing suchpersonal information data. That is, the various embodiments of thepresent technology are not rendered inoperable due to the lack of all ora portion of such personal information data. For example, appropriateoutput modes and pattern components can be selected by inferring contextbased on non-personal information data or a bare minimum amount ofpersonal information, such as the content being requested by the deviceassociated with a user, other non-personal information available to theoutput formatting services, or publicly available information.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic device, comprising: one or moreprocessors; a memory; and one or more programs, wherein the one or moreprograms are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by theone or more processors, the one or more programs including instructionsfor: selecting an output mode; in accordance with a determination thatan output is to be provided by the electronic device, obtaining anoutput data structure for the output, wherein the output data structureincludes one or more output groups, and wherein each output groupincludes one or more pattern components; selecting, based on the outputmode, at least a first pattern component from at least a first outputgroup of the output data structure to include in the output; andproviding the output including at least the first pattern component ofthe first output group.
 2. The electronic device of claim 1, whereinselecting an output mode includes determining a degree of visual outputand determining a degree of audio output.
 3. The electronic device ofclaim 2, wherein the degree of visual output is determined relative tothe degree of audio output.
 4. The electronic device of claim 1, whereinselecting the output mode is performed based on context informationassociated with the electronic device.
 5. The electronic device of claim4, wherein the context information associated with the electronic deviceincludes a type of the electronic device.
 6. The electronic device ofclaim 4, wherein selecting the output mode based on the contextinformation associated with the electronic device includes determiningwhether attention criteria are satisfied by the context informationassociated with the electronic device.
 7. The electronic device of claim1, wherein the output data structure includes an input data field forone or more sets of output data received from a task flow, wherein theinput data field corresponds to at least one output group of the one ormore output groups.
 8. The electronic device of claim 1, whereinobtaining the output data structure includes selecting the output datastructure from a set of output data structures based on a first taskflow.
 9. The electronic device of claim 1, the one or more programsfurther including instructions for: selecting a first subset of outputgroups from the one or more output groups, wherein the first subset ofoutput groups includes at least the first output group; selecting, basedon the output mode, at least one pattern component from each outputgroup of the first subset of output groups, including the first patterncomponent selected from the first output group; and wherein providingthe output includes providing a first output including each patterncomponent selected from the first subset of one or more output groups.10. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein the first subset of outputgroups is selected based on the output mode.
 11. The electronic deviceof claim 9, wherein the first subset of output groups is selected basedon a first setting of the output data structure.
 12. The electronicdevice of claim 11, wherein the first setting of the output datastructure is determined based on the output mode.
 13. The electronicdevice of claim 11, the one or more programs further includinginstructions for: selecting a second subset of output groups from theone or more output groups; selecting, based on the output mode, at leastone pattern component from each output group of the second subset of oneor more output groups; and wherein providing the output includes, afterproviding the first output, providing a second output including eachpattern component selected from the second subset of one or more outputgroups.
 14. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the one or morepattern components include an audio pattern component.
 15. Theelectronic device of claim 14, wherein the audio pattern componentincludes a template for generating an audio output component.
 16. Theelectronic device of claim 1, wherein the one or more pattern componentsinclude a visual pattern component.
 17. The electronic device of claim16, wherein the visual pattern component includes a template forgenerating a visual output component.
 18. The electronic device of claim1, wherein providing the output including the first pattern component ofthe first output group includes populating the first pattern componentof the first output group with output data for the first output group togenerate a first output component; and delivering the first outputcomponent.
 19. The electronic device of claim 18, the one or moreprograms further including instructions for: populating a second patterncomponent of the first output group with the output data for the firstoutput group to generate a second output component; and delivering thesecond output component.
 20. The electronic device of claim 18, whereinpopulating the first pattern component of the first output group withthe output data for the first output group is performed based on asecond setting of the output data structure.
 21. The electronic deviceof claim 18, wherein the output data for the first output group isreceived from a second task flow.
 22. A non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium storing one or more programs configured to be executed byone or more processors of an electronic device, the one or more programsincluding instructions for: selecting an output mode; in accordance witha determination that an output is to be provided by the electronicdevice, obtaining an output data structure for the output, wherein theoutput data structure includes one or more output groups, and whereineach output group includes one or more pattern components; selecting,based on the output mode, at least a first pattern component from atleast a first output group of the output data structure to include inthe output; and providing the output including at least the firstpattern component of the first output group.
 23. A method, comprising:at an electronic device with one or more processors and memory:selecting an output mode; in accordance with a determination that anoutput is to be provided by the electronic device, obtaining an outputdata structure for the output, wherein the output data structureincludes one or more output groups, and wherein each output groupincludes one or more pattern components; selecting, based on the outputmode, at least a first pattern component from at least a first outputgroup of the output data structure to include in the output; andproviding the output including at least the first pattern component ofthe first output group.